🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Pine.SGI.3.91.950329085251.21144A-100000@server.uwindsor.ca>, Maisonneuve  Michael Jaso <maisonn@server.uwindsor.ca> says:
>
>Ladies and Gentlemen, 
>
>I have here what I can discribe only as a brutal science competition.  
>This is the only event in which our school has decided to go out and look 
>for serious help in.
>
>Any help at all, suggestions, advice, tips...etc.  Will be appreciated.
>
>The event is called "Massing a Car."
>
>We will be presented with a car on a concrete floor in an auto shop and 
>given a maximum of 10min to determine the mass of the car in Kg.
>The car may be loaded unevenly (i.e., the weight of the car may not be 
>equally distributed on the 4 tires).  The tires may or may not be of the 
>same type (tread design, diameter, circumference, width etc.)
>The car will remain locked during the exercise.  We may not lift the car 
>in any manner, manually or mechanically.  We may not use any balances to 
>measure the mass or the weight of the car directly.
>We may measure any external features of the car (such as length, width, 
>height, tire pressure, tire dimensions, etc.).  (We must bring our own 
>measuring devices.)
>Scoring is based on how close to the actual mass of the car as determined 
>by the judges.  Ties will be determined by the shortest time taken to 
>complete the task.
>

Tire pressure vs. contact patch.

Get a dozen or so cars and characterize their tire size and shap vs. 
air pressure vs. actual weight.

If you can find a pattern you can accurately judge the weight of an
unkown car.

Variables would be tire make, tire type, tire style, tire size. - that's 
why you need a few cars.  For each car vary the tire pressure and see how
that affects the physical measurements.  Accuracy is important so
highly accurate gauges and measuring devices are needed - esp to 
measure tire distortion.  You may also need to know the hardness of
the tires.

Take all your data points and run it through a computer and see if
the correlate.

Maybe a few tire manufacturers can give you data to help?

Dirk