My friend and I were discussing the physics of driving a car up a ramp and into the back of a moving tractor trailer, much like what happened weekly on the 80’s sshow Knight Rider. At 50 mph, would it be possible to do this and safely stop the car or once the car got on the ramp, would it then go speeding into the wall of the trailer?
It’s perfectly possible, and probably easier with a rear-wheel-drive car. The best way of doing it is to depress the clutch and coast up to the trailer at a speed only a few MPH greater than the trailer is travelling. Then, as you hit the ramp, you can gently accelerate up it. Remember, the momentum of the car will be almost the same when it is sat on the trailer at, say 50 MPH as it was when it was driving along behind at 52 MPH. So you don’t need to worry about shooting through the end of the trailer.
It has been discussed here before:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=133917
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30575&highlight=kitt
It did cause a few arguments, because some people couldn’t grasp that a car sitting on a trailer going at 50 MPH is still travelling at 50 MPH, not 0 MPH :rolleyes: