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Introduction

Isaiah Huntington

Cars

In modern day society, we use cars everyday. They are practically a necessity at this point. Everyone knows what they are but not everyone knows how they work. For this prezi, a car is a four wheeled vehicle with an gas engine used for personal transporation. Here are the basic functions of any car.

Acceleration

"Pedal to the metal". A key component of driving is being moving in a forward motion. The car will move forward when you push on the gas pedal, and will gradually slow down after you depress the pedal.

Acceleration

Pedal

When the pedal is pressed, it opens a valve that controls the air intake to the engine. The more you press on the gas the more the valve opens.

Pedal

Engine

Most cars use a four stroke combustion engine.

2. Compression stroke: Compresses air and fuel, which will lead to an explosion.

1. Intake stroke: The intake valve opens and the piston moves to allow gas and air into the engine cylinder.

Engine

3. Combustion stroke: A spark is released, creating a small explosion, which pushes the piston down.

4. When the piston goes down, the exhaust valve opens and the exhaust exits the tailpipe.

Steering wheel

Steering

In order to steer, you turn the steering wheel, which turns a pinion on a rack. That rack connects to the car axles. When you turn the steering wheel, the pinion turns on the rack, thus turning the wheels.

Braking

Braking

Brakes are arguably the most important part of a car. All modern cars use hydraulic brakes. When you press on the brake pedal, the simple machines press against the wheel, forcing it to stop rotating.

Master Cylinder

Master Cylinder

When you press on the pedal, the master cylinders piston seals, forcing brake fluid into the brake calipers. This forces the brake pads to press inward facing the rotors and the brake shoes to press outward facing the brake drums. This creates friction and gradually slows the wheels. If the brakes are applied more forcefully it creates more friction to force a faster stop.

Parking Brake

Parking Brake

Your parking break is a button or handle that is NOT connected to your transmissions braking process. It is also referred to as an "E-brake." When this button is pressed, the braking shoes and braking pads that are used in braking are expanded and set in place and will not move until the button has been pressed again. This is useful if you have issues with the transmission or simply wish to take some strain off of the equipment.

Shifting Gears

Shifting gears

Shifting gears is accomplished using a transmission. The transmission is essentially a multi-layered cylinder that cycles and locks depending on the gear you shift into. The shiftstick allows a driver to switch to the gear suited to their speed.

Planetary Gearset

The planetary gearset is responsible for creating gear ratios. Gear ratios are what allow your car to drive at different speeds. This gearset has three main parts. A sun gear, plant gears, and a ring gear. These gears spin to create ratios. Without this machine, your car would only have one speed and would burn out quickly.

Automatic Transmissions

Automatic transmissions

Automatic transmissions actually use two combined planetary gearsets. Automatics mostly rely on hydraulics to shorten and simply the many tasks of a manual transmission. The car uses these hydraulics to automatically shift gears as you press further down on the pedal, and jump a gear if you press down hard. This allows drivers of automatics to mostly ignore the gear shifting process.

Parking

Parking actually involves the transmission, albeit in a different way. The inside of the transmission has grooves that can lock the inner gears of the transmission down, halting all movement. There is a spring that connects the transmission to the gear stick, and pushes the gears down into the grooves. Sometimes when you park, your car may roll slightly before coming to a stop. This is because the gear wasnt lined up with the grooves, and needed to align.

Suspension

A suspension is used to increase car stability by absorbing bumps in the road, and to increase tire contact with the ground. Any suspension uses some form of springs, dampers, and sway bars.

Springs

Springs

The springs directly affect how well the car deals with bumps. A car with looser springs easily deals with bumps (they are almost unnoticable) but may be prone to excessive movement when turns or braking. Tight springs have much less cushion against uneven roads but are less lightly to toss about, allowing for faster driving.

Dampers

Dampers work in conjunction with springs. Springs absorb bumps while dampers disperse the energy. Dampers, or shock absorbers, are small tubes of hydraulic fluid that go inbetween the wheels and frame of the car. When a bump is absorbed, the tubes are compressed, allowing the energy to dissapate.

Sway Bars

Sway Bars

Sway bars are the simplest part of a suspension. It is a bar that is next to the axle and connect everything together. The bar transfers movement from one side to another to allow for a smoother ride.

Conclusion

Conc.

In actuality, a car is far more complicated than this presentation. This was simply an overview of the main functions of a car to be considered a functional vehicle. If you are interested in more details, these websites have indept explanations of each and every part of a car.

auto.howstuffworks.com

caranddriver.com

howacarworks.com

Safety Warnings!

This is in no way a comphrehensive list of warnings for car operation and maintenance. These are simply warnings pertaining to material gone over in this presentation.

Safety!

Most modern day cars, when shifted into drive, will move forward at a slow pace WITHOUT pressing the gas pedal. They move forward CONTINUOUSLY, and the brake must be pressed for a full stop.

Foot on brake

E-Brake

When parking on a sharp incline, use the parking brake. The transmission can break, especially if it is forced to battle gravity in order to stop your car from moving. The parking brake is a safer and more reliable option on an incline.

Braking is gradual

When the brake is pressed a stop is NOT immediate. As the brakes utilize friction, a stop is GRADUAL. Press the brake well in advance of the point you wish to stop at.

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