I saw in a movie where a wheel came off a car travelling at high speed, and then the wheel appeared to overtake the car. I don't see how this is possible. Physics tells me the wheel could only travel at the same speed it was going at before it fell off, or slower.
2006-07-04 04:39:35 · 14 answers · asked by S. B 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
it wasn't real....it was a movie.
Your assumption is correct....in "real life" that would never happen if the car maintained it's speed when the wheel came off.
A friend of mine once had a wheel come off a trailer he was pulling as he was coming to a stop light, because he was stopping the wheel actually did roll right by him ( he said it was pretty strange...LOL) but that would be the only case where this would actually happen.
2006-07-04 04:46:10 · answer #1 · answered by Chatty 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If the wheel is flattened against the road because of vehicle weight, and the wheel were to be suddenly released, the sudden increase in diameter of the wheel could make it accelerate. If the wheel were turning at 1000 rpm, having a diameter of 17.5 inches, and it were detached still moving at 1000 rpm, but now having a diameter of 17.75 inches, it would have to accelerate.
I was traveling behind a fuel truck one day and two of the tank tires came off. First one, and then the other, from the same axle. The tires traveled alongside the truck on the freeway, at the same speed as the truck. The tires met after a short distance, and they left the road in opposite directions. The axle on the truck that held the tires had broken. The driver said he could keep going on, and he did.
2006-07-04 06:55:14 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i do believe at some point the wheel can overtake the car. because as it come off, it bears less weight thus it has to go faster than the car(assuming the car runs at constant speed) to preserve the momentum. but yeah as some have said, friction and all may get the wheel getting slow and slower or the friction is so great that the wheel has no chance to overtake the car at all
2006-07-04 05:51:43 · answer #3 · answered by kalkmat 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the inertia will make the wheel continue at the same speed the car is going but the air will make a force opossing the wheel movement (friction) this will reduce the speed of the wheel so is impossible that it overcome the car unless the car and wheel are traveling downhill but at high speed the air's friction becomes really high in non aerodinamic objects as is a car's wheel
2006-07-04 09:05:00 · answer #4 · answered by el cuyo 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nothing would speed up unless additional energy were added to the equation. The car would slow faster than the wheels because of its great size and mass, thus making the wheel appear to speed up.
2006-07-04 07:49:43 · answer #5 · answered by OneMadSquid 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The angular momentum of a spinning tire will be constant in a perfect vacuum. But once a tire comes off the axle of a car, unless the car itself is slowing down, the friction of the tire with the air and ground will instantaneously cause it to start slowing down. The energy required to actually keep the tire spinning without slowing down actually comes from the car itself. When it gets separated from the car, there is no input of additional energy into the tire and eventually friction will cause it to slow down and stop.
2006-07-04 04:53:46 · answer #6 · answered by slimtae 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is because of the less mass of the wheel that is why it accelerates more and thus can over take the car
but the force of friction that resists the motion of the wheel changes all the energy of the wheel into heat energy and thus stop the wheel.
according to the 2nd law of motion
acceleration is directly proptional to force
and inversely proptional to mass of the body.
it means that the lesser the mass the more the acceleration will be.
u can check it by following formula
a= force/mass
2006-07-04 06:02:16 · answer #7 · answered by behroz_ahmedali 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are 2 worry-unfastened forms of dynos, a chassis & an engine stand. The chassis dyno feels like a pair of rollers interior the floor. the automobile/truck is pushed onto the platform with the rigidity wheels on the rollers, & reved. The rollers interior the floor degree the ability on the wheels, so a chassis dyno numbers must be enormously on the threshold of the particular international. An engine stand dyno takes basically the engine, no longer the automobile, & measures the ability. the traditional SAE standards require the countless regular engine front upload-ons to be working. That analyzing measures basically the engine, without accounting for the looses from the transmission & such. The length of a chassis dyno is given as BHP, Brake Horse ability, via fact it shows the ability attainable on the brakes of the automobile.
2016-11-01 04:47:02 · answer #8 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The wheel could go faster than the vehicle, if it came off the drive axle. More likely explanation: the vehicle slowed down when it lost the wheel.
2006-07-04 04:45:39 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
the tire could in fact speed up if when the tire comes off it is thrown off with forward motion no longer being encumbered by the weight and direction of the vehicle.like a sling shot.
2006-07-04 05:56:39 · answer #10 · answered by stryker55 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋