A question about drag racing

[GD8ver2]

Some idiot told me that a heavy car will be faster than a lighter car. If both of the cars has same perfermance but different in weight. Wont they have the same speed? Although in physics, People talk about mometum. The larger the mometum the more speed but in this case I dont think so. So what do you guys think?

[phlygirl1437]

Given the same performance figures and powerband, a lighter car will always be the winner.

[psychobadboy]

a lighter car will always go faster because it doesn't have to work as hard...if you could mount a civic engine on a skateboard, it would go faster than a lot of stock sports cars (believe it or not)...lol

[GD8ver2]

Well no car is being compare but it just that this idiot who happens to take physics thinks two cars with the same performance , but differet in weigh. He thinks the car with the heavy weigh will win, but oh well after I heard from you guys he must have failed physics LOL

[68chevelle]

lol. well that guy is correct. but only if your droped the two cars out of an air plane a few thousand feet in the air.

[psychobadboy]

Originally Posted by 68chevelle

lol. well that guy is correct. but only if your droped the two cars out of an air plane a few thousand feet in the air.

man, we can go into a major physics discussion with that one...

[matt11583]

u sure that the heavier hits first out of a plane. lol
in a race the lighter car always win if they have the same performance

[chevytrucks92]

Originally Posted by matt11583

u sure that the heavier hits first out of a plane. lol
in a race the lighter car always win if they have the same performance

Thats if the cars are "pulling" themselves. Of course the lighter car will win in that situation. But now with gravity pulling the cars, the heavier one will hit the ground first.

[joebowlr21]

actually, it's the whole bowling ball and penny experiment fellas.

They dropped a bowling ball from a high altitude along with a penny. They calculated that the velocities were exactly the same and that they would land at the same time. So it wouldn't matter if the car was heavier when dropping out of a plane, they would land at the same time. Now, the difference with the heavier car is gonna be impact. It will make a larger "crater" i guess you could call it, but it wouldn't get to earth any faster.

It's been scientifically proven fellas......no lie!

[phlygirl1437]

GD8ver2, your friend's just a bit confused. Momentum is a product of mass and velocity (speed). It is not speed itself, nor is speed dependent on it.

Say there are two cars going a steady 60mph. At this point, the heavier of the two cars will have more momentum. When the accelerator is released on both cars at the same time, the lighter car will come to a stop sooner than the heavier car because it has less momentum. In the end, the heavier car will have gone farther than the lighter car because it had more momentum.

[68chevelle]

phylygirl must have payed attention in her physics classes. she is correct for the most part. the only thing is it also depends on the drap being applyed by things like the breaks, should be but it happens sometimes, then also the wheel bearings, and then there is the tranny. depending on the gearing and whatnot the tranny could also try to slow down the car. but i guess what she said works perfectly if any only if, you shift into nutral and there is the same wind resistance being applyed, meaning if you took two cars that are totaly the same but just added weight you it would probably work, but it would come down to everything must be the same, even the amout of frictin that each wheel bearing is causing and sutch things as that. oh and with the droping them out of a palin thing i said, there is sutch a things as terminal velocity. that is the maximum speed that a free falling body can reach. the idea is usualy applyed to people but i think it should work for any object. so to me if something was the same size dencity and all that stuff just one weighed more then the one that weighed more would accelorat to its maximum speed faster causing it to hit the ground first.

[GTR2b]

Simple experiment here people.

Get something heavy like a bowling ball or wieght.

Run a 40m as fast as you can.

Then run that same 40 carrying the weight.

Any questions?

[JekylandHyde]

F=M*A Force = Mass times Acceleration
A=F/M Acceleration = Force divided by math.

So given the same force (horsepower), if you add mass then you get less accleration.

... the heavy car will travel farther in an accident because of momentum.

Originally Posted by 68chevelle

well that guy is correct. but only if your droped the two cars out of an air plane a few thousand feet in the air.

Actually that is not correct.

The acceleration of gravity does not change with the weight of the object. Gravity accelerates every dropped object at the same rate: 9.8 meters per second per second. Drop an egg and a brick ... watch them hit the ground at the same time.

If you look at the above equation F=M*A ... it implies the heavy car will hit the ground with more F (force).

[Mike (M3)]

jekyl and hyde is completely correct:

two bodies, no matter what their mass, will hit the ground at the same time; galileo was the first to prove this, by dropping a light wooden ball and a heavy cannon ball from the top of the Pisa tower in italy. they hit the ground at the same time.

however a feather and a cannon ball would hit at different times; this is due to air resistance. in a vacuum with no air, they would reach the ground at the same time

[chevytrucks92]

In a vacuum yes, but in the real world, the heavier woudl hit first.