The Saratoga Automobile Museum has instituted an ongoing series of educational programs of interest to both students and adults. Scheduled for the museum’s Orientation Theater at 11 am each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, “The Science of Speed” will consist of three programs showing how science is applied to real life.
In the “Different Strokes” segment, students will learn how a 4-stroke combustion engine works by operating a hand powered cut-away engine while following a one-page illustrated diagram explaining what occurs during each of the four strokes. They will then watch a segment of “The Science of Speed” movie from the National Science Foundation on the power of a race car’s engine. They will connect what they learned from manually powering the engine to how fast a race cars engine turns by timing themselves for 60 seconds.
The “Car Safety” portion of the program will illustrate how a NASCAR race car is designed, engineered and fabricated not just to win, but to also keep the driver safe in a crash. This will be illustrated by watching a segment of “The Science of Speed” movie from the National Science Foundation on car safety that shows how the racers hold up in 180 mph crashes that drivers routinely walk away from without injury.
The final segment, “Fastest Team On The Track”, will show students and visitors how a NASCAR pit crew can change all four tires, fill the fuel cell (gas tank) and send the car back to the track in under 15 seconds. They will also learn the roles of each crew member and how they must work together pit stop after pit stop to maintain their track position in order to have a chance at winning.
Following the educational program, visitors are encouraged to visit the auto museum’s “Racing in New York” gallery to view both vintage race cars and a cutaway Miller Lite #2 NASCAR Sprint Cup car that will let them see in person what was illustrated in the film.
More information on the Saratoga Automobile Museum, including other educational programs and the recently opened Golub Gallery exhibit, “Luxury Automobiles Through the Ages,” is available online at www.saratogaautomuseum.org.
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