Tag: transportation

Rockets

I have vivid memories from when I was a kid in Texas of travelling out into the countryside to watch my oldest brother and his friends launch rockets. This wasn’t some ’60s radicals’ attempt to overthrow the government of Swisher County, but a new hobby called model rocketry. The rockets came in all sizes, from …

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Ballooning around the world

Aeronauts call circumnavigating the world in a balloon “the Last Great Adventure.” One attempt ended in the Pacific Ocean on December 26, but other balloonists are raring to go–eight expeditions in all. The most technologically advanced balloon ever to make the attempt, sponsored by Re/Max, may have already been launched by the time you read …

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Supersonic airliners

  The Concorde supersonic airliner first flew almost 30 years ago, and entered regular service more than 20 years ago. By now, the skies should be full of sleek supersonic jets ferrying people rapidly all around the globe. Instead, the Concorde only services a few high-profile routes–Paris to New York and the linke–while most of …

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The world land speed record attempt

Right now, on a dry lake bed in Black Rock, Nevada, two teams are locked in a fierce competition. Using exotic, jet-propelled vehicles, they’re striving to break the sound barrier–on land. In the process, they’re pushing technology to its limits. What makes the competition even more interesting is the contrast between the two teams. On …

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The physics of driving

A lot of people will be driving a lot of kilometres over the next few months, as Canadians rush frantically around the country to make the most of summer. Unfortunately, quite a few accidents will undoubtedly result, some of which could be prevented if people better understood the physical forces at work when they drive …

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Future cars

Like many other small boys, I was fascinated by cars, not least because my oldest brother was a bit of a car guy and subscribed to cool magazines like Car and Driver and Motor Trend. Every so often, one of those magazine (or other cool magazines like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics) would run an article on the “Car of the …

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Car sound

One of my earliest childhood memories is of sitting in the front seat of my father’s Studebaker, listening to the Beatles. Since those early days in Lubbock, Texas, I’ve listened to a great deal more music in many more cars. In the Studebaker, and in the ’63 Plymouth that followed it, if you wanted to …

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Car care

I like my car a lot. But I have to admit, it doesn’t look as good as it used to. And probably yours doesn’t either. That’s because the moment your car rolls out the factory door, its finish starts to deteriorate. It’s not too surprising, since a car’s surface is attacked by ultraviolet light, ozone, …

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The science of tires

It happens to all of us sooner or later. We’re in a hurry, we head off in our car–and discover we have a flat tire. This happened to me twice in December, and got me thinking about tires, which is unusual, because usually we don’t think much about tires at all. After all, they’re pretty …

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IndyCar racing

You can keep your hockey, your baseball, your lacrosse–this week, my favorite sport is in the spotlight, as 33 drivers contest the Indianapolis 500. No other sport involves as much science and technology as automobile racing. Public fascination with technology first made it popular: at the first organized race in France 100 years ago, the …

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Happy 40th anniversary, USS Nautilus!

  There’s not much in the way of interesting scientific anniversaries on my list for this month, which suits me fine, because it means I can focus on the one that interests me most:  the 40th anniversary of the launch of the world’s first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus, on January 21, 1954. I don’t …

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Bicycles

I wouldn’t call myself a “serious” cyclist, since I don’t wear neon Spandex shorts and top, a colour-coordinated helmet, leather gloves or fancy cycling shoes. Heck, I don’t even have a water-bottle. But I do cycle a bit, and as I was puffing my way along the bike path the other day it seemed to …

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