Will a lighter car have a higher top speed?

Will a lighter car have a higher top speed?

Adding extra weight to your car will slow acceleration, but won’t reduce its top speed. In determining a car’s top speed, its engine battles two main forces: rolling resistance and aerodynamic drag.

Does weight affect speed of car?

Weight affects speed down the ramp (the pull of gravity), but it’s the mass (and friction) that affects speed after a car leaves the ramp. Heavier cars have more momentum, so they travel further, given the same amount of friction.

Does mass Effect top speed?

According to the law of conservation of energy: mgh = 1/2mv^2 + 1/2 I (rotational speed) ^2, where I is usually proportional to the mass. Because of this, the mass cancels out and should not affect the rolling speed.

Why are lighter cars faster?

It’s clear that a lighter car requires less force to accelerate than a heavier one. With a heavier car of the same power you have to accelerate for longer to cover the same distance so you use more fuel.

Do heavier cars stop slower?

A heavy car has more inertia, but the heavier car weight results in more force between the tires and pavement. If the tires coefficient of friction was not affected by the load, or if the heavier car had different tires, it could stop in the same distance or even less distance as the lighter car.

Why do light cars go faster than heavy cars?

Considering the light car, it’s able to go faster due to lower ground resistance, but the benefit is made up for by both more air and ground resistance due to a higher speed, $F=F_{air}+F_{ground}$, and the $F$ is a constant between the two identical engines.

How does mass affect the top speed of a car?

Since the car’s inertia is one of the forces pushing the car forward, increasing inertia will increase the top speed. Since increasing mass increases inertia, increasing mass will increase top speed. Note 1: Technically, rolling resistance increases with mass, since there is more weight on each tire.

Does the weight of a car affect the air resistance?

The air resistance is basically only affected by the shape of the car, so it will be completely unchanged. The heavier car, however, will have greater ground friction from the contact between the wheels and road and because of that will have a slower max speed.

Does the weight of a car affect its acceleration?

The heavier car will accelerate slower, based on simple F = m a, where F is the same, so a must be smaller for a larger m. Friction, which determines the max speed along with the force, is a little bit messier. The air resistance is basically only affected by the shape of the car, so it will be completely unchanged.