Quote:
Originally Posted by wungun
So your saying, in my example, if it requires 50hp to do 50 mph, you'll need 400hp to do 100??
I think you're wrong....
Are you thinking of kinetic energy an object has at speed perhaps?
Or am I!?
Lol
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You are.
From
Wikipedia:
"Power
The power required to overcome the aerodynamic drag is given by:
Note that the power needed to push an object through a fluid increases as the cube of the velocity. A car cruising on a highway at 50 mph (80 km/h) may require only 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) to overcome air drag, but that same car at 100 mph (160 km/h) requires 80 hp (60 kW). With a doubling of speed the drag (force) quadruples per the formula. Exerting four times the force over a fixed distance produces four times as much work. At twice the speed the work (resulting in displacement over a fixed distance) is done twice as fast. Since power is the rate of doing work, four times the work done in half the time requires eight times the power."
This is well known among salt flat racers.