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Re: Coke-bottle shapes, etc.

To: "Ed Weldon" <23.weldon@comcast.net>,<BWANA343@aol.com>,
Subject: Re: Coke-bottle shapes, etc.
From: Skip Higginbotham <saltrat@pahrump.com>
Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2007 11:15:30 -0700
Ed, don't forget that the coke bottle advantages for a car will 
likely need a top view of the car in order to balance the frontal 
area as the view proceeds from end to end.

skip




At 10:37 AM 4/29/2007, Ed Weldon wrote:
>OK you guys.  Time to get your feet back on the gound.  The king of the
>aerodynamics factors is frontal area.  All these other streamlining issues
>are just a bunch of court jesters. (tickle, tickle......that should get'm
>all stirred up.)
>
>Do you know what your frontal area is? OK, if you do you may not be
>interested in what's below.  If your car is a brick, like a street roadster
>(OK, Rocket Science with the '34 body is at least trying) or a stock body
>there's not much fruit on that tree.  But others up to special
>construction....that's where it becomes important.  It's probably a good
>thing we can't easily measure frontal area or there would be a lobby to add
>that complexity to our class breakdowns. (more tickles)
>
>But wait!!  Anybody out there know what a planimeter is?  It's an arcane
>drafting tool little known outside the world of professional draftsmen or a
>few scientific disciplines. It's used to measure irregular areas usually in
>square inches.  Do a Google search on that word.  Search ebay and you'll
>find old mechanical planimeters selling in the range of $20 to $60.
>For our application get a frontal view of the car.  In the absence of a
>scale drawing use a photo.  Get your longest telephoto lens and get  as far
>away from tha car as you can and still be able to fill the viewfinder frame.
>This reduces the perspective effect that would shrink the size of the rear
>parts of the car.  Before you snap the photo put something of known length
>in the scene that you'll scale the picture off of.  Don't forget to read the
>instructions on how to use this new gadget.
>Ed Weldon




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