BEHAVIOR
Like fashion models, hubcaps and spinners sashay around at incredible
speeds to look good. Spinners are kinetic devices that are free to rotate even when the wheel has stopped.
HABITAT
Hubcaps and spinners cover the center of a car’s wheel. Spinners and elaborate hubcaps cover the wheels of expensive cars and cars whose owners need to feel special.
HOW IT WORKS
Hubcaps are fixed decorative devices that attach to the wheel. Spinners attach to the wheel but are free to rotate. They pick up angular rotation from the spinning wheel. As the wheel rotates, friction between the bearings and the housing that holds them transfers some of the spinning energy from the wheel to the decorative spinner. When the car (and wheel) stops, the spinners continue to spin due to their angular momentum.
Other spinners are geared so they stay in place while the wheel rotates. This allows the car’s logo or name on the spinner to remain upright and readable while the car is in motion.
INTERESTING FACTS
Independently rotating spinners are relatively new. David Fowlkes got a patent (#6,554, 370) for spinners in 2001.
All rights reserved
Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN: 978-1-55652-812-5
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sobey, Edwin J. C., 1948–
A field guide to automotive technology / Ed Sobey.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-55652-812-5
1. Automobiles—Popular works. 2. Mechanics—Popular works. I. Title.
TL146.5.S63 2008
629.2—dc22
2008046620
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