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Re: More Wheels?
You don't really get any more traction with 5 vs. 4 wheels.
Surface area is not part of the equation.
From our friends at Wiki -
Quote:
Maximizing multi-wheeled vehicle traction
It is important, due to broad application, to point out the specific case of multi-wheeled vehicles or vehicles with multiple contact patches between the tire and the road surface. Multiple wheels do not increase a vehicle's traction, because the friction force is independent of the contact area.[1] The friction force (Ff) is dependent upon the coefficinent of friction (COF) between the contact surfaces and the normal force (N = a force perpendicular to the contact surface).
Ff= N(COF)
A greater number of wheels will allow a vehicle to carry a larger load, thus increasing the resulting normal force. More traction is achived with a greater load because the potential frictional force has been increased.
The case of wheels sharing a given normal force is particularly important in vehicle design. Two identical tires sharing a common load achieve maximum stability when they share the load equally. Likewise, an unequally loaded pair of tires sharing a common load will not be able to achieve the same maximum stability.
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__________________
Chris Fultz
Cyber Blue - Team 234
2016 IRI Planning Committee
2016 IndyRAGE Planning Committee
2010 - Woodie Flowers Award - Championship
Last edited by Chris Fultz : 07-01-2009 at 13:45.
Reason: added quote
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