Real-Life Math
Sport utility vehicles, station wagons and pickup trucks roll off
assembly lines by the thousands. An initial design is drawn up for these vehicles
and is replicated over and over again. Race cars aren't built this way.
Because
each car is individually shaped and designed, mechanics have to spend much
of their time creating parts for the car.
You just ordered the most
advanced race car tires on the market for a car you have in the garage. But
you are worried that these new tires won't fit in the wheel wells you
have designed. The tires require the length of the arc of the wheel well to
be more than 120 cm.
The measurement in a straight line from one side
of the wheel well to the other on your car is 80 cm. Knowing that the arc
of the wheel well is a perfect semicircle above this straight line, figure
out the measurement of the arc. Will the new tire fit in the well?
(Hint:
the measurement straight across the wheel well is equal to the diameter)
Remember
that Circumference = (Pi) x (diameter)
C = (Pi)d
"Math
is the most important skill someone will use in race car preparation," says
Jay Hedgecock. He is the president of a racing academy in North Carolina.
"If you are a front suspension mechanic you will have to use micrometers to
center calipers on rotors and numbers have to be subtracted to see how much
the calipers have to be moved. If you are a set-up mechanic you use numbers
for ride heights, wheel weights and many other areas of set-ups."