Acceleration comparisons

[horseback]

Originally Posted by gaunt1

Please... Check the ACCELERATION chart made by HORSEBACK. (page 6, post # 44) It clearly shows the insane advantage of the FN over the F. For example, 270 to 500 km/h takes 56 seconds for F, and 36 seconds for FN. Thats 55.5% better performance.

I'd say that it's more like 55.5% better time. The lead one develops through each 10kph interval is added to the next one, and the next, sort of like compounded interest. If you have a power advantage of 20%, it is applied in each interval, and that advantage increases with every subsequent interval.

Acceleration is usually expressed in terms of both time and distance: some many meters per second per second (or per second squared). It is an ongoing process, and the primary limitation is air resistance, or drag, which increases as a cube of the velocity, if I remember correctly. In any case, you need exponentially more power to overcome drag as speed increases, which is why my charts depict curves instead of straight lines.

cheers

horseback