Really fantastic job! It’s not often I’m blown away by Jalopnik posts, but this was definitely one of them. 

I am not ignoring energy, energy is baked into those equations. If you have enough power to lock the tires, you are limited in the rate at which you can put energy into the mass of your vehicle. That rate (a.k.a. Power, energy per time, force times velocity) is determined solely by how fast you are going right now,…

Of course a heavier car requires more energy to slow down. Given the same coefficient of friction, though, stopping distance/time doesn’t change. Accel = u * g, where u is coefficient of friction, because F = m*g*u and F = m*a, so mass cancels out...

Weight does not make much impact for braking. In addition to F=ma, force from friction equals normal force (weight, or more accurately, weight on driven/braking wheels with weight transfer accounted for) time friction coefficient. A 1500lb-heavier car delivers 1500lb more braking force, so your resulting deceleration…

Actually, yes, my school's class was taught by an adorable, gentle, tiny old man who wears a bowtie every day - polar opposite.

A single simple planetary can give 5 forward ratios and 2 reverses. But yeah, it would absolutely require witchcraft to make a 5-speed out of a single planetary set! Doing it with multiple gearsets is actually pretty straightforward... Ravigneaux carrier, on the other hand, pure magic!

Hi, you and I come from remarkably similar backgrounds. My father moved here with his family from Greece in 1955, with virtually nothing in their pockets. His father worked hard to build a better life. My father and his siblings worked hard to build subsequently better lives. I have worked hard to build a better life…

AwD definitely not safer, though. Just helps you accelerate.

That was probably my biggest takeaway from the whole article. Just a little out of touch with the majority of their constituents...

The flight crew caught the bird with a hat

Came here for this, thank you.

Yaw momentum.

While I certainly don’t care if someone smokes some weed, and think it should be decriminalized federally, I am curious about Tesla’s drug policy. If employees can be fired for failing a drug test for marijuana, I think it’s a bit of a slap in the face to them when their CEO does it publicly (perhaps more so due to…

I am a mountain biker, I do my best to yield to everyone, whether I’m going up or down. This means I try to always keep a speed that lets me come to a complete stop if someone is on the other side of a blind turn. No Strava KOMs for me on downhills, oh well. Sometimes I end up startling others, but I manage to never…

You are more or less correct; I’m not sure, in this case, coefficient of friction varies with time as much as it does with load (decreasing as load increases). You reach a point of more or less diminishing returns where a wider tire is lower on that load sensitivity curve, but the other big factor for relatively…

Hiiii!!!

How much? I got one that’s roughly a foot square for like $40 on Amazon not so long ago... or maybe it was $60, either way, it comes in handy! https://www.amazon.com/HHIP-4401-0011-Granite-Surface-Plate/dp/B01BHHXVA0/

I got one on Amazon for like $40 a few years back, I think the flatness was at the same spec too.

Tiny compared to what? WRC cars make 300hp with a 34mm restrictor, FSAE cars can make 100hp with 20mm, etc. Smart car doesn’t make much power, doesn’t need much intake.

I tried explaining this to someone in the last article about women in F1, and they went around in circles contradicting themselves to keep trying to justify their belief that women can’t compete in F1 :/