Notice the person in this video is wearing a helmet. Far too often, you see people riding bikes without helmets, and that is a travesty. If your bike flips, and you land on your head without a helmet, you could die on the spot. If you have a helmet on, you may feel nothing. What a difference a helmet makes.
Archive for December, 2008
Understanding Car Traction Control
If you’ve ever experienced the frustration of trying futilely to move your vehicle on slick ground, you’ll appreciate the value of traction. Without it, your car’s wheels can spin furiously without your achieving any acceleration. Over the past few decades, cars have evolved dramatically. Today, complex traction control systems are deployed to help drivers maximize engine torque on slippery surfaces. In this article, I’ll describe how they work and I’ll clarify a common myth about them.
How It Works
The primary goal of these systems is to maximize the amount of friction between the drive wheels of your car and the road underneath them. This friction is what allows your vehicle to accelerate. The problem is that friction diminishes when road conditions become slippery. Consider driving on icy ground. Pressing the gas pedal causes your engine to spin faster, which turns the drive shaft faster, making the tires spin. But, if your tires can’t grip the road, your car won’t move.
Traction control systems are actually a part of your car’s anti-locking brake system. The same sensors that modify the pressure to your brakes to prevent them from locking are used to identify wheel slippage. It does this by noting whether one or both of the drive wheels are spinning faster than they should. If they are, it applies braking pressure to slow the wheel. By reducing its speed, the system increases the wheel’s ability to grip the road, creating friction.
A Practical Example
I’ll explain how it works with an example. Assume that the roads are wet and you’ve stopped your car at a stop sign. When the coast is clear, you floor your gas pedal. Predictably, your wheels start spinning, but your car refuses to move. There’s no friction between your wheels and the wet surface. The sensors identify the slippage immediately and begin applying the brake to the spinning wheels. As the wheels slow down, traction increases and your car begins to move.
A Common Misconception
A lot of drivers are under the impression that these systems actually provide increased traction. It’s a minor misunderstanding, but it’s worth clarifying. They don’t actually increase the amount that is delivered to your wheels. Instead, these systems reduce the speed at which your wheels are spinning, thus reducing slippage. As slippage declines, friction increases, providing additional traction. The distinction may seem negligible, but it’s actually important to having a basic understanding about how the system works.
The key thing to remember is that these systems play a critical role in driver safety. They use the same sensors as your car’s anti-locking brakes to apply braking pressure, ultimately giving you more control of your vehicle.
