Accelerator

“ A man may be perfectly able to perform all the special driving functions when not flurried, and when his attention is not disturbed by exciting events, but he may become hopelessly involved at the very moment when the greatest skill and judgment are required from him—for instance, when in an emergency the pedal brake ought to be applied, instead of pressing down this brake, which would at once stop the vehicle, he may hurriedly press down the accelerator pedal, which has the effect of increasing the speed, and thus, possibly, an accident of a most serious nature results. ”

“ I A In car engines without computer-controlled throttles, the accelerator pedal interacts with the throttle via cable or other mechanical link. The pedal arm acts as a lever rotating around a pivot point. In a cable-actuated throttle control the rotation caused by pushing down the pedal pulls a cable, which in turn pulls open valves in the carburetor or fuel injection unit. The wider the valves open, the more fuel and air are released, causing combustion to increase and the car to accelerate. ”

“ Thus, if an electric tramcar starting from rest attains its full speed of 24 miles per hour in the time of 20 seconds, its average acceleration is 1.2 miles per hour in each succeeding second, or "1.2 miles per hour per second." If instead of giving the speed in miles per hour we give it in metres per second, the acceleration of this car would be 0.535 metres per second per second. Taking the metre as the unit of length, the second as the unit of time, and the kilogram as the unit of force, we have thereby also settled what the unit of mass must be. ”

“ However, the effects of this wave of acceleration, in particular the corresponding loss of energy, are in most cases negligible, that is to say not only in ordinary mechanics and in the motions of the heavenly bodies, but even in the radium rays, where the velocity is very great without the acceleration being so. We may then confine ourselves to applying the laws of mechanics, putting the force equal to the product of acceleration by mass, this mass, however, varying with the velocity according to the laws explained above. ”

“ How much does the velocity change in a small interval of time? That’s called the acceleration, and when it is multiplied by the coefficient called the mass of an object, or its inertia coefficient, then that together is the force. One can measure this. For instance, if one has a stone on the end of a string and swings it in a circle over the head, one finds one has to pull, the reason is that although the speed is not changing as it goes round in a circle, it is changing its direction; there must be a perpetually in-pulling force, and this is proportional to the mass. ”

“ Nothing forbids one to assume that the man-meteorite might grow, as an acorn does, absorbing light, heat, electricity,—or thought; for, in recent times, such transference of energy has become a familiar idea; but the simplest figure, at first, is that of a perfect comet,—say that of 1843,—which drops from space, in a straight line, at the regular acceleration of speed, directly into the sun, and after wheeling sharply about it, in heat that ought to dissipate any known substance, turns back unharmed, in defiance of law, by the path on which it came. ”

“ The relations are quite similar at this place; at very rapid accelerations of the electron it becomes inadmissible to calculate with electromagnetic mass, especially then, when the speed of light is reached or even exceeded. Though we still may apply the theory of quasi-stationary motion when the velocity remains behind the speed of light only by a few kilometers per second, and when the the acceleration assumes the values attainable in the strongest fields. ”

“ In other words, the components of the force at any point are determined from the components of acceleration in all parts of the field by the same process by which (in the theories of gravitation, etc.) the value of the potential at any point is determined from the density of matter in all parts of space, except that the sign is to be reversed. Adopting this law, provisionally at leasts we may express it by saying that the components of electrodynamic force are equal to the potentials taken negatively of the components of acceleration of electrical flux. ”

“ That which we call acceleration pertains wholly to deflection, or in very small part to speed, as loss of speed by one and gain by another.
There is still another set of relations to be considered. A body is composed of particles; in order that they should remain within the sphere of the body their paths must be composite, and in order that their paths may be composite there must be a sufficient number of internal collisions to deflect them and retain them within that sphere. If the body itself is moved the paths of the several particles in the average must thus be rendered less composite ”

“ As to the wave of acceleration, this is a perturbation altogether analogous to light waves, which starts from the electron at the instant when it undergoes an acceleration, and which is then propagated by successive spherical waves with the velocity of light. Whence follows: in a straight and uniform motion, the energy is wholly conserved; but, when there is an acceleration, there is loss of energy, which is dissipated under the form of luminous waves and goes out to infinity across the ether. ”

“ A draught-horse will run more quickly if the cart it draws is empty than if it is full of goods. You can start a perambulator with a push that would be useless in the case of a heavy truck.
When a locomotive with a few coaches suddenly starts, the velocity imparted to the train during the first second is what we call its acceleration. If the same locomotive starts, in the same conditions, with a much longer train, we see that the acceleration is less. Hence the idea, introduced into science by Newton, of the mass of bodies, which is the measure of their inertia. ”

“ In the light of Larmor's electron theory, we know now that acceleration of atoms, or rather of a charge upon an atom, necessarily generates radiation, proportional in amount to the square of the acceleration—whether that be tangential or normal. There is no theoretical reason for assuming any influence on uniform velocity. And even the influence on acceleration is exceedingly small under ordinary circumstances. Only during the violence of collision are ether waves freely excited. The present experiment, however, has nothing to do with acceleration: it is a test of viscosity. ”

“ It takes a more powerful engine to make a long train attain a speed of ten miles an hour at the end of the first half-minute, than it does to make a short train do so. Or we may have circumstances where the force is the same for a number of different bodies; in that case, if we can measure the accelerations produced in them, we can tell the ratios of their masses: the greater the mass, the smaller the acceleration. We may take, in illustration of this method, an example which is important in connection with relativity. ”

“ Consider the electrons as material points and ask how their mass should vary as function of the velocity not to contravene the principle of relativity. Or, still better, ask what should be their acceleration under the influence of an electric or magnetic field, that this principle be not violated and that we come back to the ordinary laws when we suppose the velocity very slight. We shall find that the variations of this mass, or of these accelerations, must be as if the electron underwent the Lorentz deformation. ”

“ A is then detached, and a body B is attached to the same thread, and the same or another force is made to act until the increment of length again is α, and the acceleration of B is noted. The experiment is then renewed with both A and B until the increment of length is β. The four accelerations observed should be proportional. Here we have an experimental verification of the law of acceleration enunciated above. Again, we may consider a body under the action of several threads in equal tension, and by experiment we determine the direction of those threads when the body is in equilibrium. ”

“ Because the principle of inertia is certainly nearly true. When the engine experiences a sudden and sharp check, or an acceleration, the fly-wheel serves to keep it steady. Driven by the speed it has acquired, and driving the engine in its turn, it tends to preserve its velocity, and it prevents or modifies accidental checks or accelerations. The principle is therefore based upon experience, especially on the experiments of Galileo, who verified it by rolling balls down planes inclined at different angles. ”

“ Normal accelerometers depend upon the apparent increase in the gravitational constant. But on a spacecraft where a Lanson generator is used to create a neutralization of part of the mass so that the acceleration can run high without crushing the crew, the accelerometer was a complex integrating circuit that measured the power going into the Lanson, compared it to the power that went into the drivers, measured the true gravity of what was left, performed some internal computations and came up with an electrical current that registered on the control panel. ”

“ If we confine ourselves to small velocities, then we have the same expression for the kinetic energy, that is stated by mechanics for the living force. The magnitude of acceleration, however, cannot be derived from that without further ado.
Acceleration presupposes a variability of velocity. The expressions for electromagnetic energy, however, are only derived under the assumption of a time-independent value of velocity. ”

“ But how do we know the amount of the accelerating force exerted by the crank at the beginning of the stroke? This question is answered as follows:
We find that for the first three degrees the accelerating force is, for the purpose of our computations, constant, the diminution not appearing until we have passed the sixth place of decimals.
Let us now suppose the crank 1 foot in length to make 1 revolution per minute, so moving through 6° of arc in 1 second. At this uniform rate of acceleration the piston would be moved in 1 second the versed sine of 1° .0001523048 × 62 = .0054829728 of a foot. ”

“ With the tremendous field intensities available by the material engines, I can get such fields as will 'dig their toes' into space and push. [99]
"That's the drive itself. It is accelerationless, because it enfolds us, and acts equally on every atom of us. By maintaining in addition a slight artificial gravity—thanks also to the intensity of those material engine fields—we can be comfortable, while we accelerate at tremendous rates.
"That is, I think, at least allied to the Stranger's system. For the high-speed drive, I do in fact use the Uncertainty. ”

“ The development of coal-power in the nineteenth century furnished the first means of assigning closer values to the elements; and the appearance of supersensual forces towards 1900 made this calculation a pressing necessity; since the next step became infinitely serious.
A law of acceleration, definite and constant as any law of mechanics, cannot be supposed to relax its energy to suit the convenience of man. ”

“ The acceleration is thus constant for every world line of hyperbolic motion in terms of their magnitude; here lies the analogy with the uniformly accelerated motion of old mechanics represented by parabolic world lines. Thus it is the simplest accelerated motion, and every motion can approximated by hyperbolic motions. Based on that, we want to find out more precisely the dynamics of hyperbolic motions, above all we try to determine the force exerted by an electrically charged rigid body upon itself. ”

“ In the case where the acceleration is sufficient for it to radiate an appreciable energy to a distance by means of the acceleration wave, it is probably necessary to bring in, by other terms in the equation of motion of the electron, some forces by which it can receive again the energy which it radiates, and which disappear in the case of quasi-stationary motion. ”

“ Yet, my theory strictly provides the dependency of the rest mass on acceleration for a class of motions, which corresponds – being the principally simplest accelerated motions – to the uniformly accelerated ones of the old mechanics, and which I call "hyperbolic motions", namely the rest mass proves to be constant up to enormous accelerations. Equations of motion in the form of the mechanical fundamental equations [9] which are adapted to the relativity principle, apply to this motion. ”

“ Acceleration will take place from the highest to the lowest point of flight, and the energy stored as energy of position will be completely returned in its original form of energy of motion. The effect of the working of the reversible cycle, then, on the rotatory system, under the given conditions, is simply to produce alternately a retardation and a corresponding acceleration. ”

“ Inertia says a body will move once started, but it doesn't say why or how. How does that particle once started gain the knowledge to continue without some direct control over its spatial framework? That it will continue, we know. That in the presence of a gravitic field or a magnetic field or other attractive force at right angles to its motion, we can create an acceleration which will maintain it in an exactly circular path called an orbit. ”

“ Thus, when we start the motors propelling an electric car, a transient period, of acceleration, appears between the previous permanent condition of standstill and the final permanent condition of constant-speed running; when we shut off the motors, the permanent condition of standstill is not reached instantly, but a transient condition of deceleration intervenes. ”