Estimating gas mileage: An example of order-of-magnitude physics
Physics Education
2007-05-23 v1
Abstract
I discuss how to estimate the gas mileage of a car. This discussion, which covers air resistance and Reynolds numbers, describes one way to introduce dimensional analysis and order-of-magnitude physics into introductory physics (if only the syllabus would allow it). It is part teacher's guide and part textbook chapter -- I hope not the worst parts of each.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.physics/0512209,
title = {Estimating gas mileage: An example of order-of-magnitude physics},
author = {Sanjoy Mahajan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0512209},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
plain TeX with eplain, 12 pages, 4 figures, free/open-source license (OSL 3.0); based on a talk at the 121st AAPT National Meeting, Guelph, Ontario, 31 July 2000 (see http://www.aapt.org/AbstractSearch/FullAbstract.cfm?KeyID=8454)