FTRC Menu
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The More You Know...The Faster You Go
Maximize performance and avoid disaster! Through race engineering, students learn to approach their car’s physical limits without exceeding them. Example activities include:
SCIENCE. Traction: Use Newton’s Laws of Motion and a skid pad test to calculate the coefficient of friction. Use that value to find top speed around a curve.
Science teachers can use supplemental lessons in their physical science
and physics classrooms.
TECHNOLOGY. Design on the FastTrack: Students use a leading 3-D CAD program, SolidWorks, to design a more aerodynamic car body or
improve chassis parts. Spreadsheets are a must-have tool for most
professionals and every FTRC team.
ENGINEERING: When students apply math, science and technology to solve any FastTrack RC problem, they are engineering a solution.
Using the new Mechanical Engineering Guide, students use 3D CAD to
redesign and improve components of their FTRC cars.
MATH. Track Layout & Math
Modeling: Learning to make the tracks is an applied geometry lesson. To
optimize any variable, teams build and use math models in the form of
graphs and tables. Math teachers can use supplemental lessons in
their algebra - calculus classrooms. |
New in 2009-10: PIT Now!
PIT = Petroleum Independent Transportation
FTRC
students tackle the same issues that U.S. policy and technology makers
face in transitioning from a fleet of gas guzzling to sustainable cars.
The momentous and very real issue must be tackled from two sides: Supply
and Consumption. FTRC teams make their cars more efficient
(consume less) and create a wind or solar charging station (sustainable
energy supply)
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