Book Review

The Isaac Newton School of Driving: Physics and Your Car

Barry Parker
The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2003
250 pp. ISBN 0-8018-7417-3

Reviewed by Henry J. P. Smith

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Barry Parker has written an intriguing book. The son of a garage owner, he grew up with cars. He tells us that his fascination with the automobile nearly led him into a career as an automotive engineer. Later, as a physics professor, he included automotive topics in his teaching. In this book, Parker introduces the basic concepts of physics in terms of the car, thus appealing to a common interest of many people.

Parker starts with a brief history of the automobile, which he expands upon from time to time in later chapters. He then leads the reader on a tour of simple kinematics and mechanics, thermal physics, and the basics of electrical systems. The discussion is aimed at the “informed” reader, using a minimum of equations. He includes numerous diagrams and figures to illustrate his points. Material is sometimes introduced quite hastily, however; for example, he discusses uniform motion without clearly defining what that means.

Subsequent chapters return to mechanics, treating various aspects of automobiles in some nonmathematical detail. One chapter discusses braking systems and tires, and the next discusses gearing and transmission systems. Although these deal more with engineering, they are nonetheless interesting from a physics perspective. The discussion of the roll axis intrigued this reviewer: This is the axis about which the car might roll over in a high-speed turn, as do certain SUVs. The author focuses on rear-wheeldrive vehicles, yet it would have been useful to include a comparison with front-wheeldrive as well. The chapter on aerodynamics includes a discussion of the drag force and its increase with speed, as well as aerodynamic effects on stability.

No treatment of physics and cars could be complete without a discussion of collisions. Parker considers head-on collisions, whether completely inelastic or not, as well as two-dimensional collisions and the reconstruction of accidents. Unfortunately, this chapter introduces, rather abruptly, a “ severity index” as a measure of the survivability of a crash, without adequately explaining the term.

Auto racing is another fascinating topic to which Parker devotes a chapter. He discusses traction and strategy and how to make the most effective turns in a race. Traffic is the final topic, with a brief consideration of chaos theory and complexity, both areas of current research in statistical physics. The final chapter looks ahead to automated highways and other new technologies.

The Isaac Newton School of Driving has a definite flair and keeps the reader interested. Despite a few minor flaws, the book should have broad appeal and could provide a good resource for those who teach elementary physics.

Biography

Henry J. P. Smith is a part-time lecturer in physics at Northeastern University in Boston. Semi-retired, he worked for more than 30 years in industry, in atmospheric and infrared physics, and built large-scale computer codes for use in such studies.