Derby Talk

Stan Pope wrote:I'll have to look at software possibilities to see how many tracks and finish lines one computer could manage.

Without custom programming, I doubt you will find software that will manage multiple tracks and input from multiple timing systems. You run into many technical issues in trying to do so.

How about these:

Three wheels is better than four.
Don't discount aerodynamics
"There's enough wood in there for 3 cars"
Mercury is a No-No

MaxV wrote:Guilty as charged. Too bad the reporter missed the hyphen in my web address!

Thanks for the good word! At least without the hyphen, they do end up at one of your sites, though not the one that you would prefer.

if a parent refuses to cooperate, so be it I'll have to disagree with you there. You have to put your foot down at some point, otherwise the rules are meaningless and that teaches the kids the wrong thing and things will just continue to deteriorate. Somtimes to do the right thing means there will ...

I am not in anyway endorsing this but I will not in anyway make the boy feel inferior because of the means he got his car...HE HAS NO CHOICE!!!! It is shame on the parents, never on the boy! And never should be reflected to that boy in any means! sorry about the soapbox...just feel strongly about t...

With Awana axels, I do not recommend filing or aggressive sanding since they are very nicely machined. If you do see some scratches, then you can do some wet sanding with some 600 grit wet/dry paper, then follow up with some higher grit paper and/or then metal polish.

[quote="Buckeye-Racer"]O my! Randy Davis! What a great article! That newsletter just analytically confirmed all of my suspicions. Absolutely fabulous! Thanks! http://www.maximum-velocity.com/subscribe.htm This should probably be in its own thread or ones already on the board about canting.

Snake, Thanks but I did do this and my results came back with every post ever... I simply used the words "weight" OR "Insulate" ... I have never been much good at using the search function on any ez board I belong to :cry: Try the "Search for all terms" option then you...

I stumbled upon this site http://multihome.www.opus1.com/pullen/p ... /index.htm that you all might be interested in seeing. I think it is a great seeing kids getting involved in learing the science behind derby racing and doing experiments to learn even more.

Out of curiosity, I did a quick check of the data from our last race. Analysis of Average Here is what the Student's t-test applet analysis returned when comparing the worst lane versus the best lane (based on average of all times in those lanes): Student's t-Test for Comparing Things Java Implement...

I was just browsing through the latest Pinewood Derby Times and read an article that is metioned from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/0204/07pinewood.html . It seems Derby Talk made their short list of "On the Web" sites :mrgreen: Do we have you t...

You can try it, but since it is "discrete data", you probably will not get a determiniation of "statistical significance". If I recall right, you may have to apply a different set of equations and it is only effective with a high number of data points. A easier and more accurate...

Given that many people don't or can't record times (or like me they question the consistency of recorded times over an entire day of racing), would it make sense to enter lane places into the applet, two lanes at a time? You can try it, but since it is "discrete data", you probably will n...

If you must glue the axles in place (as grandson, Victor's council rules required him to do last year, even tho the press fit was quite snug), consider the following alternative. No glue until axles are in final position! Note that hot glue will probably not be absorbed by the wood or cause other d...

An analysis of lane bias would be easier to do with times, as opposed to finish order. Continuous data is easier to apply statistical methods than discrete data. If you had a set of times for each lane, you can compute the average and standard deviation for each lane. You should look at both since y...