A topic for debate for sure.

DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION

Read this thru slowly and try to comprehend the amount of force produced in just under 4 seconds!






There are no rockets or airplanes built by any government in the world that can accelerate from a standing start as fast as a Top Fuel Dragster or Funny Car!















DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION








One top fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows of stock cars at the Daytona 500.

It takes just 15/100ths of a second for all 6,000+ horsepower of an NHRA Top Fuel dragster engine to reach the rear wheels.

Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1-1/2 gallons of Nitro Methane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.

A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster's supercharger.

With 3,000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition.

Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.

At the stoichiometric (stoichiometry: methodology and technology by which quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are determined) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture of Nitro Methane, the flame front temperature measures 7,050 deg F.

Nitro methane burns yellow... The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.

Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.

Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After halfway, the engine is dieseling from compression, plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1,400 deg F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow.

If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned Nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.

In order to exceed 300 mph in 4. 5 seconds, dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph (well before half-track), the launch acceleration approaches 8G's.

Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence.

Top fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light! Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.

The redline is actually quite high at 9,500 rpm.

Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimate $1,000.00 per second.

The current top fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.428 seconds for the quarter mile (11/12/06, Tony Schumacher, at Pomona , CA ). The top speed record is 336.15 mph as measured over the last 66' of the run (05/25/05 Tony Schumacher, at Hebron , OH ).



Putting all of this into perspective:

You are driving the average $140,000 Lingenfelter 'twin-turbo' powered Corvette Z06. Over a mile up the road, a top fuel dragster is staged and ready to launch down a quarter mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the 'Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and pass the dragster at an honest 200 mph. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment.

The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds, the dragster catches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you just passed him.

Think about it, from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1,320 foot long race course.

...... and that my friend, is ACCELERATION!


Rog

 

Thanks for sharing Rog, there's some real eye opening facts in there

 

You don't know how bad I'd LOVE to drive one of those. I do 140+ and that's fun for sure, imagine 300+!!!!!!

 

4G's would bee painful lol. 8 G's even worse. I wonder if those motors are rebuilt after every race

 

I wonder If my PSD was at full speed, how many feet (or inches) would i have to be from the finish line to beat him?

 

Never mind

 

Lol! If your truck at full throttle, if you started 35 feet from the finish line it might be close! Haha

 

sorry my numbers were off. deleted post

 

Kawa: Based on the following formula I'm calling B S !!!

Acceleration

Definition: Average acceleration is the change in velocity over the change in time:

<table align="CENTER" cellpadding="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr valign="BASELINE"><td align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap"><big> = </big></td><td align="CENTER" nowrap="nowrap"><big> </big>
</td><td align="LEFT" nowrap="nowrap"><big> </big>
</td><td align="RIGHT">(5)</td></tr> </tbody></table>
Definition: Instantaneous acceleration is calculated by taking shorter and shorter time intervals, i.e. taking t 0:
<table align="CENTER" cellpadding="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr valign="BASELINE"><td align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap"><big> a </big></td><td align="CENTER" nowrap="nowrap"><big> </big>
</td><td align="LEFT" nowrap="nowrap"><big> </big>
</td><td align="RIGHT">(6)</td></tr> </tbody></table>
Note:

• Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity.
• When velocity and acceleration are in the same direction, speed increases with time. When velocity and acceleration are in opposite directions, speed decreases with time.
• Graphical interpretation of acceleration: On a graph of v versus t , the average acceleration between P and Q is the slope of the line between P and Q, and the instantaneous aceleration at P is the tangent to the curve at P.
• From now on ``velocity'' and ``acceleration'' will refer to the instantaneous quantities.

 

OK! Which part are you unhappy with, the first part or the second with the vette?

Also, please bear in mind that I did not write this I only submitted it for your viewing pleasure and/or debate. Several years ago I had a similar study on the efforts of a fuel Dragster that spelled out how mang turns the crank shaft made in a 1/4 run. It was not many and should I find it I'm sure that it will be additional fodder for your pencil and calculator.

Also, I have no clue what all of those scribbles mean that you replied with so I will accept what you say until someone else comes along with a convincing counter opinion.

Rog

 

Its all cool I was just messin with you !!!

I Also, have no clue what all of those scribbles means.
and it just boggles my mind a dragster can go that fast.

 

They are torn down to a bare block BETWEEN EVERY RUN and put back together to run in about 45 minutes total. Amazing if you ask me.

 

That in itself takes acceleration.

 

The "triangle" simply is a delta which means "the change in" so, essentially, you're looking at the change in velocity over the change in time. the sub "i" and sub "f" are initial and final. SO you take your final velocity, subtract your initial and divide that by final time minus initial time.

Lets say your initial velocity is 0 and final is 300mph=(440ft/second) over 4.5 seconds, they you would have (440ft/s)/(4.5s) = 97.7 ft/s^2 (average acceleration)

Note: this would be if acceleration was a linear relationship, which in the case of a top fuel dragster, it is not linear but a good enough guestimate

 

I was absent that day of school. Had a the 24 hour pink eye flu.