Cars & Motorbikes

John Townsend

Description

This addition to the visually stimulating Sci-Hi series looks at the applications of science and new technologies to the field of cars & motorbikes and how they affect our lives. It looks at new materials, discoveries, and inventions and assesses their environmental impact.

Informations

• Publié par: Capstone Global Library
• Date de parution: 16 juin 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781406233377
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 32 Mo

Extrait

Science and Technology Cars and Motorbikes

John Townsend

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Raintree is an imprint of Capstone Global Library Limited, a company incorporated in England and Wales having its registered office at 7 Pilgrim Street, London, EC4V 6LB – Registered company number: 6695582

Text © Capstone Global Library Limited 2012 First published in hardback in 2012 The moral rights of the proprietor have been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS (www.cla. co.uk). Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission should be addressed to the publisher.

Edited by Andrew Farrow, Adam Miller, and Diyan Leake Designed by Victoria Allen Original illustrations © Capstone Global Library Ltd 2011 Illustrated by Oxford Designers and Illustrators Picture research by Elizabeth Alexander Originated by Capstone Global Library Printed and bound in China by CTPS

ISBN 978 1 406 22836 6 (hardback) 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Townsend, John.  Science and technology: cars and motorbikes. --  (Sci-hi)  629.2’22-dc22 A full catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Acknowledgements he author and publishers are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce copyright material: Alamy pp.10(© PhotoStockFile),14,15,22

(© culture-images GmbH),23(© idp oulton park collection),24(© Bob Weymouth); BUB Enterprises 2009 © WWW.bub.com p.33; Corbis pp.9(© George Tiedemann/NewSport),13(© Marc Sanchez/Icon SMI),16,17(© Handout/Reuters),19(© PCN),30(© Car Culture),35(© Lee Sanders/epa),34(© Toshiyuki Aizawa/Reuters),37(© Michael Crabtree/Reuters),38 (© Kevin Bartram/Reuters); Getty Images pp.29(Junko Kimura),31(Johanna Leguerre/AFP),36(© 2009 John Kosak); Getty Images for NASCAR p.7(John Harrelson); PA Photos p.32(GetPress/ABACA USA/Empics Entertainment); Photolibrary pp.4(Axel Schmies),5 (Novastock),6(Dan Barba),11(Javier Larrea),28(Anton Luhr); Press Association Images p.26(© 2009 Press Association/Sutton/Sutton Motorsport); Shutterstock contents pagetop (© Daniel Gangur),contents page bottom (© Harsányi András), pp.18(© Walter G Arce), 20(© Daniel Gangur),21(© Harsányi András ),all background and design features. Main cover photograph of Caparo T1 supercar, reproduced with permission of Rex Features (Geoff Moore);insetcover photograph of inflatable balloon reproduced with permission of shutterstock (© Daniel Gangur).

The publisher would like to thank literary consultant Nancy Harris and content consultant Suzy Gazlay for their assistance in the preparation of this book.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of material reproduced in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in subsequent printings if notice is given to the publisher.

Disclaimer All the Internet addresses (URLs) given in this book were valid at the time of going to press. However, due to the dynamic nature of the Internet, some addresses may have changed, or sites may have changed or ceased to exist since publication. While the author and publisher regret any inconvenience this may cause readers, no responsibility for any such changes can be accepted by either the author or the publisher.

Contents

Science on wheels

Force

Blast force

Speed

Motor racing

Grip

Crash science

At the cutting edge

Future technology

Tomorrow’s world

Timeline

Quiz

Glossary

Find out more

Index

4

6

8

12

18

20

26

30

34

38

40

42

44

46

48

Some words are shown in bold,like this. These words are explained in the glossary. You will find important information and definitions underlined, like this.

How does friction help drivers? Find out on page 20!

Why do bikers lean into a bend? Turn to page 21 to find out!

4

SCIENCE ON WHEELS What would the world be like without cars and motorbikes? It’s difficult to imagine, but these machines have only been around for a very short part of our history. The invention of the modern engine has totally changed the world we live in.

Amazing technology Today, we expect a car or motorbike to spring into life at the turn of a key. Hundreds of moving parts all work together smoothly to turn the wheels. We probably don’t think about all the powerful technology at work. Amazing science makes cars and motorbikes the remarkable machines they are today.

INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES combustion The internal (burning) engine creates heat energy to make vehicles move. It burns fuel and oxygen within the engine itself. This was new science in the 1880s. At that time, steam engines used the heat from a separate fire. This was external (outside) combustion.

In 1886, Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900) of Germany made the world’s first petrol-powered motorcycle. He built it by strapping a combustion engine to a wooden bicycle.