formula car on the ceiling · Physics Brawl 2024 #8
Physics · fluid-mechanics
Problem
To maximize the frictional force between the wheels of Formula 1 cars and the road surface, the car body is designed so that air resistance pushes the car to the ground. At what speed would the Formula 1 cars have to travel in order to drive heads down on the ceiling? For simplicity, consider that the car is a right-angled triangle of length 5.1m, height 1.0m, and width 1.8m. The vehicle's mass, including the driver, is 800kg. Let us further assume that the air particles are initially stationary and elastically bounce off the vehicle.