Tire Factors and Their Effects on Fuel Efficiency of Automobiles
The purpose of the research was to determine how three different factors of a tire: rubber thickness, diameter, and treading, affected the rolling resistance of a car. This experiment pertains to the car industry or anyone that is interested in cars. In this environmentally conscious era many automobile companies try to find new ways to make a car more fuel efficient. Due to the current economic crisis, fuel efficiency is very important. The more money people can save the better. The less rolling resistance the tires on a car have, the more fuel efficient it will be. This experiment was conducted with a photo gate and smart pulley to find the acceleration of the car. The car, with the desired tires, was connected to a pulley and the acceleration was recorded when it was pulled. Once the acceleration was found the rolling resistance was then calculated. The data was collected into an ANOVA, or an Analysis of Variance, test to see if the tire factors made significant differences or not. Upon analyzing the statistical test, it was shown that there was a significant difference when it came to the tire sets. It was concluded therefore that the tire sets had differences in data between each other, even though the numbers were similar. Tire set one, which had the lowest diameter, rubber thickness and had a slick treading type, had the overall lowest rolling resistances. While tire set two, which was neither a high nor low in any factor, produced the highest rolling resistances.
Research Done By:
Dylan Gale
Cousino High School
Michael Freckelton
Cousino High School
Warren Consolidated Schools