The physics of losing traction
Recently I was watching the animated movie "Cars" with my automobile-obsessed four-year-old son, when an interesting and unexpected physics item made an appearance in one of the scenes.
Lightning McQueen, the arrogant young protagonist race car, is astonished when he can't make a left turn on a dirt track. When "Doc" explains that McQueen must turn right to go left, Lightning is annoyed and dumbfounded by the seemingly ridiculous logic of Doc's proposition. But Doc is right (no pun intended). What he is describing is the phenomenon known as "drifting."
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