The Traffic Accident Reconstruction Origin -ARnews-

Re: Snowmobile speed

Bob Cole (rpcole@ican.ca)
Sun, 30 Mar 1997 13:11:05 -0500 (EST)

I don't think there is any new phenomenon here. Living in "the great white
north", I have had the opportunity to operate snowmobiles on many occasions.
A snowmobile operator soon learns that the vehicle dynamics(like a motorcycle)
are very dependent on operator "english" or movement of the operators' C of M.

The airborne formulas are based on the movement of the objects C of M. With a
car, the occupants do not usually make a big difference in the C of M. With a
400-500 pound snowmobile, the location (in my case) of a 270 pound operator
makes a big difference in the vehicle C of M. The reason the track drops is
because of the location of the operator at the rear of the machine. If your
calculations did not consider the movement of the combined C of M of the
operator and the snowmobile, this should explain the discrepancy. (eh?(Canadian
for huh))

Bob Cole
rpcole@ican.ca

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