Ford F-150 vs. Plane - Update
03/03/08 13:33 Filed in: Physics
Some time ago, I posted an analysis
of the Ford F-150 commercial where the truck
is shown to stop a landing C-123 Airplane.
Apparently, this was quite popular and I
received some useful and interesting feedback.
From this, I have a few updates.
First, my mistakes.
I am an idiot. I referred to the speed of the air plane in knots per hour. Duh - knots is short for nautical miles per hour, so the speed would just be knots. Also, feedback from experienced pilots suggest that the airspeed is likely in miles per hour anyway.
Next, a comment:
The most common comment I received was that the point of the demonstration was to show that the F-150's brakes didn't overheat. Ok, I can accept that. If that was the case, it wouldn't matter if the plane was helping it stop - would it? Regardless of the intent, I think the commercial seems to imply the truck did the stopping.
The magic of commercials:
Another experienced pilot claims that the speed gauge from the video is fake and should not be in that location in the instrument panel anyway. I can believe this is possible. Perhaps, the speed gauge did not slow down dramatically enough so they made it dramatic. Perhaps they had to speed up the shot of it slowing down so the commercial would not go over 30 seconds. So, this might NOT be the actual acceleration - although the commercial explicitly says "An ACTUAL BRAKING DEMONSTRATION" - so .....
Even if it is wrong:
I still had a great time analyzing the video. It was a great opportunity to discuss some physics.
I am an idiot. I referred to the speed of the air plane in knots per hour. Duh - knots is short for nautical miles per hour, so the speed would just be knots. Also, feedback from experienced pilots suggest that the airspeed is likely in miles per hour anyway.
Next, a comment:
The most common comment I received was that the point of the demonstration was to show that the F-150's brakes didn't overheat. Ok, I can accept that. If that was the case, it wouldn't matter if the plane was helping it stop - would it? Regardless of the intent, I think the commercial seems to imply the truck did the stopping.
The magic of commercials:
Another experienced pilot claims that the speed gauge from the video is fake and should not be in that location in the instrument panel anyway. I can believe this is possible. Perhaps, the speed gauge did not slow down dramatically enough so they made it dramatic. Perhaps they had to speed up the shot of it slowing down so the commercial would not go over 30 seconds. So, this might NOT be the actual acceleration - although the commercial explicitly says "An ACTUAL BRAKING DEMONSTRATION" - so .....
Even if it is wrong:
I still had a great time analyzing the video. It was a great opportunity to discuss some physics.
