physics lessons from a moving truck

i took physics in high school and college.  i always did well with the conceptual parts of the lessons, but got lost when it came to the math.  after driving a 24-ft Budget moving truck across 3.5 states, i now know a lot more about physics than i did prior to this move.

lesson #1

an object in motion tends to stay in motion:

while dad was giving erin and i our 'driving your moving truck' lesson with his very concerned dad expression, he kept say, "this thing will take forever to stop".  i knew that he wasn't kidding, i mean it was a huge truck, but every time we were coming up to a corner, erin and i would both remind each other because it really did take a long while for the thing to come to a complete stop.

we also created a new sport called moving truck tobogganing during the trip.  the rules are simple:  drive to the top of a hill.  when you reach the peak of the hill, take your foot off of the gas pedal and let the momentum of almost 13 tons of truck and stuff take you to the bottom.  sadly the winner will always be the person with the heaviest truck so i wouldn't recommend a tobogganing tournament with a semi.  also, as hills are necessary for this sport to be any sort of fun, IL is not the greatest place to play.  wait until you get into western missouri, kansas, or colorado to truly experience this thrilling new sport.

lesson #2

an object at rest tends to stay at rest:

this is pretty much the exact opposite of the previously stated lesson.  the challenge here is getting the truck up the hill to begin with.  the size of this truck was definitely enough to make hills, even IL hills a bit of a challenge.  it did not like to fight gravity one single bit.  by the time we got to eastern kansas, we were seriously sweet talking the truck.  though we didn't want to bond with the truck enough to give it a name, we did have several conversations with her.  lots of encouraging words were said as well as leaning forward in the seat as if that is actually going to help in the slightest bit, but you can't really help it when at every hill you get a mental image of the truck running out of momentum near the top of the hill and sliding back down colliding with all of the cars behind you.  if i had any real artistic ability, there would be amazing cartoon illustrations with this post.  however, you will have to use your imagination.

lesson #3

matter cannot occupy the same space as other matter

due to the lack of a rear view mirror, the blind spots on a truck that big are quite massive and a little hard to get used to.  this makes lane changing not so much fun.  in fact i recommend minimal lane changes in a vehicle that large.  however, since most drivers haven't had their physics lessons from a moving truck, they don't understand lessons #1& #2 well enough to know that they should STAY OUT of your way!  a moving truck can go about 45 MPH up a decent sized hill and will go about 75 MPH down the same decent sized hill.  it also needs a significantly larger hole in traffic for turning and lane changing because we all know what happens when matter attempts to occupy the same space as other matter.  CRASH, BANG, BOOM, which means a very sad and painful day for all involved.  luckily we mastered this lesson quite early in the trip and avoided any attempts to disprove this theory of matter.

lesson #4

for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction

well this isn't exactly true, but in a moving truck for every action on the part of the moving truck, there is definitely a reaction on the part of the other drivers on the road.  we saw some really amusing reactions to the effects of lessons 1, 2, & 3 while we were on the road.  i think the best were in kansas city, where there are some annoyingly sharp curves on the interstate.  not wanting to flip a moving truck over, we took them quite carefully and made several drivers severely angry.  if you ever have to drive a moving truck this big, i recommend posting a sign on the back apologizing for any wrongdoings on your part due to the difficulty of driving something that large.  maybe you will see a few less middle fingers and raised fists.

the other manifestation of lesson #4 that you will encounter is the relationship between a moving truck traveling down the road and the dollars moving out of your checking account.  here are the statistics from our trip:

1054 total miles driven

138.833 gallons of diesel fuel purchased

$406.77 in diesel fuel costs

average miles per gallon 7.56

total moving cost including truck rental, fuel, and hotel rooms $2005.42

the next time you are driving down the road and encounter a moving truck or even a semi for that matter, please remember these lessons and act accordingly.  it's not as easy as it looks.