FoxTrot by Bill Amend for June 07, 2009

That must have been one wild ride.

A day late and a loop short.

Did Paige and Jason just agree on something? ;)

Jason would know that the preceeding ramp would have to be at least one and a half times higher than the following loop. So this test track would not work. But knowledge comes through experimentation.

its a great comic, and always meke me smile when i see

jlhety: if the track was frictionless it would work.

Actually, jlhety, h = 2.5r, where h is the height of the ramp and r is the radius. Since the height of the loop is 2r, then the ramp only needs to be 25% taller. Also, this is made on the assumption that the loops are perfect circles. Since the loops are narrow near the top, the centripetal force would be greater than if the loops were circles, thus requiring a lower ramp height.

Also, since the real car had an engine, we can assume the toy car has been “upgraded” by Jason. I wouldn’t put it past him.

jlhety and maitreya - you’re analyzing a cartoon WAY too much. it’s not supposed to be accurate according to the laws of physics and geometric facts or whatever. you’re just supposed to enjoy it. why don’t you next try to tell me which version of Mac OS the Fox family has on their iFruit?

to be fair to jlhety and maitreya, bill amend does have a physics degree, so maybe it’s fair to hold him to a slightly higher standard

grew up with engineer brother just like Jason, what fun

Granted, Bill Amend has a physics degree, but he’s also a cartoonist, and we all know about “cartoon physics”. I’d be more worried about that corkscrewed track in the middle left of the strip than about any and all of the loops put together. :)

The real problem is the jump before the loop-the-loops. Any car going slow enough to hit the track before doing the loop-the-loops is not going to have enough momentum to complete said loops.

…jiggity jiggity…

how would that jump not reach the house without the loop the loops?

I want to see an animated one