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How do you calculate G-forces?

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On April 29, 2001, CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) officials cancelled a race
at the Texas Motor Speedway because the drivers experienced dizziness after as few
as 10 laps. The combination of high speeds and tight turns at Texas Motor Speedway
produces forces of almost 5 Gs in the turns. One G is the force of Earth's gravity
-- it is this force that determines how much we weigh. At 5 Gs, a driver
experiences a force equal to five times his weight. For instance, during a 5-G
turn, there are 60 to 70 pounds of force pulling his head to the side. Let's see
how to calculate how many Gs a car pulls in a turn and how these Champ cars can
stay on the track under so much force.

Calculating the G-forces on the drivers is actually quite simple. We just need to
know the radius of the turns and the speed of the cars. According to Texas Motor
Speedway's Track Facts, the turns on the track have a radius of 750 feet (229
meters). During practice, the cars were turning laps at around 230 miles per hour
(370 kph).

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When a car goes around a turn, it accelerates the whole time (this is why, when you
make a turn in your own car, you feel a force pulling your body toward the outside
of the car). The amount of acceleration is equal to the velocity of the car squared
divided by the radius of the turn:

Let's run the numbers:

230 mph is 337 feet per second (f/s).

(337 f/s)2 / 750 feet = approximately 151 f/s2.
The acceleration due to gravity (1 G) is 32 f/s2.
151 / 32 = 4.74 Gs experienced by the drivers.
How can the car stay on the track under this kind of force? It's because of the
banked turns.

The Texas Motor Speedway has 24-degree banking in the turns. The banking doesn't
really affect how we calculate the G-forces on the driver, but without the banking
the cars could never go around such a tight turn at 230 mph. Let's see how the
banking helps.

If a Champ Car tried to make a flat turn at 230 mph, it would slide right off the
track because it doesn't have enough traction. Traction is proportional to how much
weight is on the tires (the more weight, the more traction). Banking a turn allows
some of the G-forces created in the turn to increase the weight on the tires,
increasing the traction. To figure out what portion of the Gs gets adds weight to
the tires, you multiply the G-forces by the sine of the banking degree. In our
example:

So with a 24-degree banking, 1.93 Gs adds weight to the wheels. In addition, a

portion of the 1 G from Earth's gravity also puts some weight on the tires: 1 G x
cos24� = 0.91 Gs. Together, 2.84 Gs (or 2.84 times the weight of the car) push down
on the car during the turn, helping it stick to the track.
The car's aerodynamics also create significant downforce at 230 mph. On an
airplane, the wings provide lift. A Champ Car has spoilers that are like upside-
down wings, providing the opposite of lift: downforce. The downforce keeps the car
glued to the track with a downward pressure provided by the front and rear wings,
as well as by the body itself. The amount of downforce is amazing -- once the car
is traveling at 200 mph (322 kph), there is enough downforce on the car that it
could actually adhere itself to the ceiling of a tunnel and drive upside down! In a
street-course race, the aerodynamics have enough suction to actually lift manhole
covers -- before the race, all of the manhole covers are welded down to prevent
this from happening!

Between the downforce and the G-forces, well over four times the weight of the car
holds the tires to the track when it goes around one of those 24-degree banked
turns at 230 mph.

Drivers take an enormous amount of punishment on a track like this. This level of
acceleration is higher than most people ever experience. Even the space shuttle
only develops 3 Gs when it takes off. What's even more amazing is how long these
drivers tolerate this kind of force. The Texas Motor Speedway is 1.5 miles (2.4 km)
long: The front stretch is 2,250 feet (686 m) long, and the back stretch is 1,330
feet (405 m) long. At 230 mph (337 f/s), the drivers take about 6.5 seconds to go
down the front stretch, and then they are slammed by almost 5 Gs of force for the
next 6.5 seconds as they go around the turn. It only takes about 4 seconds to make
it down the back stretch before the next turn and another 6.5 seconds of almost 5
Gs. If the planned 600-mile (966 km) race had taken place, the drivers would have
gone back and forth between 5 and nearly zero Gs a total of 800 times.

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