So this weekend, I started driving class. During it, one of my fellow classmates asked a question. "Why are there advised speed limits when you go around sharp corners?" My teacher simply said that it was because if you went too fast around the curve, you would be putting yourself in danger. I had a better answer in mind. In order to stay on the road when negotiating a curve, the friction between the car's wheels and the road has to remain greater than the force of the momentum of the car from accelerating then suddenly turning. On a normal curve, the car eases into the turn and so it doesn't have a real threat of slipping off the road. However, when there is a sharper curve, the car usually doesn't have as much opportunity to slow down. So they tell you to slow down so that your car doesn't go flying off the road. If you had remained at that speed and tried to negotiate a sharp turn, then there is a good chance that the car would either start drifting closer to the outside of the road or the car would sustain some major damage, or both. Of course by combining both physics and skillz one can use these sharp turns to pull off some mean drifting tricks. Of course its too bad they never teach us that in drivers ed.
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