3 ms·
Pedantic point: a vehicle with its wheels locked straight will go straight. It may veer a little depending on the torque distribution, but that’s due to frictio
by CobaltFire 5y ago
Pedantic point: a vehicle with its wheels locked straight will go straight. It may veer a little depending on the torque distribution, but that’s due to frictional imbalances.
The only mechanism I can think of that supports your example of a vehicle “spiraling” is torque steer, which is a unique issue to a certain subset of vehicles and requires an imbalance to generate in the first place.
- jameshart 5y agoI’m not talking about an ideal car on an infinite smooth plane - I mean a real car.
- CobaltFire 5y agoNor am I. I’m not entirely sure what variety of mechanism you think will cause it to spiral, but I’m not aware of one.
- jameshart 5y agoHow straight do you think you can line up the wheels, really? If they’re off by even a fraction of a degree you are not going in a straight line.
- CobaltFire 5y agoTrue, but you also aren’t spiraling in any meaningful sense of the word as used here. That’s what I’m curious about.