Scale, whats it all about

[rchockeystick]

A 1/10th scale car can easliy reach speeds of 50 mph. A real scale car, can maybe reach 150mph. In order for scale to work out no problem, a scale car would have to go 500mph and a 1/10 to go 50mph. How does this work :confused:

[Jeff M]

Power to weight ratio and power to aerodynamic drag ratio.
To be honest I don't know the exact math/physics to explain it, but essentially when you scale up a car you aren't changing the environment. Air still has the same density and gravity is still the same regardless of the size of vehicle it is acting on.

That's my stab at answering it, maybe someone else can expain it further or better.

[tog435]

Power to weight, for one thing. Scale your 5lb 1/10th up to full size, a 50lb car.... :)

[rezenclowd3]

Its the scale SIZE of the car...approx. :-) Too bad I cant buy a half scale stadium truck at my LHS:-)

[desfjr1300]

I may be way off about what you're trying to get at, but it sounds to me like you're looking at it "backwards." Our cars are scaled or modeled after the real thing, not the other way around, and the scale really only applies to size. (and even that's questionable in some cases) The speeds we can reach really don't "scale up" or apply to real cars-haven't seen one yet that can run 500mph! If we were stuck with scale speeds we'd all be bored out of our skulls and riding dirtbikes instead :D

[Giant655]

yeah, it applies to size, not speed. These cars are 10th scale representations of full scale cars. Sure they do 50 MPH in full scale speed, but I am not sure where, I think it is some 4-500 scale MPH-way faster!

[highroller]

RC vehicles are scaled to the approximate wheelbase of a full size automobile, after that very little is to actual scale.

[NotWalkinBlind]

Hey, ya know how once in awhile somebody posts a pic or a vid of a working scale 1/5th or 1/8th V-8 engine that they plan to put in an R/C car?

Now imagine turning it around the other way... imagine a full size Can Am car with a bigass nitro engine sticking out of it right behind the driver's head.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/NotWalkinBlind/RC-Lola.gif

Now imagine what it would sound like. LOL.

[rezenclowd3]

...I would drive it;-)

[Grant Tokumi]

A 1/10th scale car can easliy reach speeds of 50 mph. A real scale car, can maybe reach 150mph. In order for scale to work out no problem, a scale car would have to go 500mph and a 1/10 to go 50mph. How does this work :confused:
If a 10th scale car is going 50 mph, then it is like a full scale car going 500 mph.

Scaling size (length) and speed (length per time) works. For example. If your 10 scale car goes 50 miles in 1 hour (50 mph), then a full size car at 500 mph will travel 500 miles in 1 hour.

But not all units work. Things such as area (length squared), volume (length cubed), and weight are not applicable the same way. As an example, a 1' x 1' square is 10th scale of a 10' x 10' square. The area of a 1'x1' square is 1 sq. ft., but the area of a 10'x10' square is not 10 sq. ft. (10 times the area). It is 100 sq. ft. (100 times the area). The concept in this example is along the lines of why it is a mistake for one to think that if their 10th scale car can go 40 mph, then if they simply scaled every component up to full size, and pulled the trigger, that the car would be able to reach 400 mph.

[Ball Racing]

Scale speeds sells cars,

But Air acts on these in real mph.

No 1/8th scale buggies "real" life counter part would be going 400 mph over a "scale" jump of 50 feet high , and landing it, and keep going.

Gravity is gravity, and air is air,
the weight issue is the deal with these cars.

That like saying, back when I used to race go karts, they would have been I guess 1/3rd scale, and would top out at big tracks about 75mph,
That was not scale 225mph!

What ever speed it goes is how fast it is.

A real car can jump at 50mph or less, take and scale that speed down on a rc car to 5mph, and see how far you launch it....

Or model boats, most real planing hulls will get on plane around 15 or so mph,
so if you had a scale model of that that was 1/10th, show be a model boat plane out at under 2 mph.......