h a l f b a k e r yNot so much a thought experiment as a single neuron misfire.
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A monster truck hurtles its way down a runway. It has 1 flat dry-racing
tyre at the front on the left. The runway has been flooded on that side
and the truck edges over to it.
A man in the back of the truck with a board strapped to his feet climbs
over the edge on to a short ladder.
The
crowd, as if one organic being, gasps in unison.
The truck begins to aquaplane over the flooded area. An eruption of
water sprays out with intense force. An enormous wedge of water is
formed gushing out from under the front dry-tyre.
The crowd cheers and whoops.
The man, holding on to a rope and handle, lowers his board onto the
wedge. He slowly adjusts to the feel of the wave beneath him, and
readies himself.
The crowd becomes silent.
The boarder lets go of the truck, suspended upon the wedge of water,
pulled by the rope...
He surfs the aquaplane.
He braves the wedge.
He Monster-Boards.
_________________
See artistic impression, below...
[EDIT] - [marked-for-engineering] - would the resultant wave have
enough up force to keep the rider from hitting the ground? And with one
tyre as a racing tyre, would the rest of the treaded wheels keep the
monster truck from careering into everyone to a horrible messy death?
From the annos of the Gnarly Surf-Plough
Gnarly_20Surf-Plough
[theleopard, Jun 23 2007]
(?) Artistic Impression
http://i37.tinypic.com/syqjaq.jpg
Enthusiasm and perserverance only slightly obscure my feeble photoshop skills. Still, monst-on! [theleopard, Jun 25 2007, last modified Oct 02 2009]
Slap a plow on the front of one of them babies!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_sled
[bleh, Sep 25 2007]
Monster Truck Steering
http://www.monsterhighway.com/mt1.shtml
Apparently, the steering wheel controls the front wheels and the back wheels are controlled by a toggle switch. When the switch is not being used, the rear wheels center themselves. [bleh, Sep 26 2007]
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Annotation:
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Disappointed - I thought this was a boarding house for monsters. |
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Ah, danger shmanger. I was hoping that by having only the front-left wheel as a dry-racing one and the other three as the full monster-truck-style hugely-treaded wheels, traction would be kept up, possibly by adjusting suspension to put more weight on those three wheels. |
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Alternatively, I had a second thought that, should my physics be somewhat flawed (no doubt), the truck would have a 5th wheel that jutted out from it and lowered on to the water to do the aquaplaning independantly of the truck itself. Although that would be cheating really. |
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Does it have to be a wheel in the water? It would be better to have all 4 wheels on dry land, perhaps next to a canal, with an adjustable scaffold overhanging the water which the surfer can launch from. This scaffold would then have some highly engineered piece of something protruding from the bottom into the water to create the desired wave, adjustable for different waveforms of course. |
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I like the idea of a driver-boarder team dynamic, assisting each other to pull off some brain-melting tricks. For instance the track could be flooded intermittantly on both sides of the runway so in order to surf all the way to the end the surfer would have to cross over to the otherside of the truck. This could be done by whipping the board outwards and swinging up and around the back. Meanwhile the truck itself, in order to catch the surfer on a fresh aquaplane, has to veer to the otherside of the road to create the wave that the surfer can land on - mid-jump. |
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Of course, there's the possibility that we give the board some wheels, that way there may be less danger of death, and more tricks possible (like going under the truck). |
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May I suggest a combination between
your 2 ideas. how about a rocket sled
in an indoor venue similar to what you
describe above. It seems the amount of
water that would have to be displaced
to support a surfer would be large.
Large enough that the truck wouldn't
be able to get enough traction to push
such a mass of water (I think). If you
fashion a rocket sled like those used to
test ejection seats and such in a 5 or 6
foot pool pushing a snow plow, you
should have your indoor manmade
surfing wave. Plus it has *rockets*! |
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Thanks. But [Bleh], not much surfing to be done in a 5 or 6 foot pool, especially when rockets are involved. |
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Not wanting to stray too far from the idea: From what I read of aquaplaning (US: hydroplaning), it renders the aquaplaning wheel completely uncontrolled; acceleration, braking, steering etc. So, either the aquaplaning wheel has to be one of the unsteered wheels at the back and the driver atempts to maintain a steady speed throughout, or, a 5th wheel rig needs to be installed on the side of the truck - a wheel that can be forced down into the water to displace as much of it as possible. |
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I still think this is too cool *not* to work. |
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I dont doubt that the water would
support
the surfer from below as he is being
pulled
by the truck, but if you want him to be
able to tricks as in your artist rendition,
I
think a more forceful wave generator
would be needed. |
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As a side note, If I remember correctly,
monster trucks have 4 wheel steering. |
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Ok, now I'm somewhere where I can
think about this undistracted for a
minute and consider the feasibility of
the idea. (read:in class) |
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the surfer hydroplaning on level water
being dragged by a truck is no problem,
those fools do it at running speeds with
no pull everyday at the beach. The
problem I see here is when they leave
the horizontal and attempt to 'Ride the
Tube' of the wave as a large amount of
energy would be required from the
wave to support their weight. Again, I
don't know if one tire on a monster
truck would displace enough water at a
fast enough rate to provide the
necessary energy. |
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Lets think about this for a minute. For a
surfer to be suspended above the
horizontal the water would halve to
counteract the force of gravity meaning
it would have to exert an upward force
equal to the surfer (and board's) weight
times 9.8 m/s^2. As the surfer rides up
the wave, the surface of the water
becomes less smooth and hydroplaning
becomes less possible so he's relying
on the upward force of water to support
him. Lets assume a 55 kg surfer (with
board). He'll be exerting a downward
force of 539N on the water. That means
the water shooting up at the bottom of
the board must either be in large
enough quantity to counteract the force
or be accelerated fast enough to
counteract it (F= m*a). |
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How deep is your water trough? |
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What about a slingshot track instead of
the rocket sled? Like the ones they use
to launch fighter jets off aircraft
carriers. Basically I'm thinking you're
going to need a deeper trough than a
monster truck will be able to drive
through, so alternative plow propulsion
may need to bo considered. I really like
the idea. |
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