Post on 24-Jan-2016
description
The Effect of Tire Pressure on Stopping Distance
By: Dominic Corbett
Chevy Celebrity
The car being used to test is a 1987 Chevy Celebrity
It has 2 disk brakes and 2 drum brakes
There is no antilock brake system
All the tires have good tread
My Chevy Celebrity
How Brakes Work
Car brakes work by applying pressure to the decelerator pedal
This forces brake fluid to close calipers around rotors
The calipers rubbing on the rotors creates friction and eventually stops the tires
Purpose
To find if tire pressure really does effect stopping distance in fair weather conditions
This will show how important it is to check the tire pressure on your own car
Hypothesis
I believe that when the tire pressure is at the lowest it will stop the slowest.
The recommended tire pressure will probably stop the car the fastest.
Also having too much pressure in the tires will be dangerous and cause stopping distance to decrease
Materials
1987 Chevy Celebrity Tape measure Chalk Tape Air compressor Tire pressure gauge
Procedure
First inflate all tires to the same pressure
Mark a line on the pavement Next in a safe, closed, and
dry road bring the car to 20 mph
Put the car in neutral Once passing the tape jam
on the brakes as hard as possible till stopping
Mark where the front end stopped and measure from the stopping line
The Procedure
Data
Results
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
35 psi 30 psi 25 psi
Psi
Sto
pp
ing
Dis
tan
ce (
in)
Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
Data cont.
35 psi 30 psi 25 psi
Trial 1 174 154 174
Trial 2 199 207 201
Trial 3 181 256 257185
Average 185 205 211
Conclusion
Overall the stopping distances were fairly close
The results matched the hypothesis One thing I noticed when testing the lower
pressure was that the tires would lock up and skid considerably further
Wheels Locking Up
Benefits of Checking Tire Pressure
Reduced stopping distances, Better handling of the vehicle in a curve or in
a lane change maneuver less chance of hydroplaning on a wet
surface, which effects both stopping distance loss of control.
Application
This applies to the real world by showing the effect of tire pressure on stopping distance
The relation to agriculture is through the machinery the machines have tires and if they are not inflated properly they create inefficiencies
Hopefully this shows how important it is to routinely check tire pressure