{"id":9012,"date":"2026-10-20T13:16:34","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012"},"modified":"2026-10-20T13:16:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:16:34","slug":"physics-behind-tesla-flying-roadster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012","title":{"rendered":"The Physics Behind Tesla\u2019s Flying Roadster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The upside-down Roadster 2 makes for a compelling sales pitch, but the suction actually has a strong use case when it\u2019s driving right side up. Frictional force is the thing that makes a car accelerate. More frictional force, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-physics-trick-that-makes-these-new-super-cars-so-fast\/\" class=\"text link\">better performance<\/a>. Pushing the car down means you can accelerate faster and brake faster and make sharper turns. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/mclarens-w1-dollar26m-supercar-is-in-places-mightier-than-an-f1-car\/\" class=\"text link\">Performance automakers<\/a> have harnessed this principle for decades, though not to the degree of Tesla\u2019s new prototype.)<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"paywall\">0\u201360 in 1 second<\/h2>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The Roadster 2 also boasts an acceleration of 0 to 60 mph in less than a second. For a traditional car, this is impossible. Since a normal car uses the frictional force between the tires and road to accelerate, it&#8217;s limited by the coefficient of friction. Using a coefficient of friction at 0.6 (reasonable), the best you can do is 0 to 60 mph in 4.56 seconds. Yes, you can get better tires and you can also increase the frictional force once the car moves faster and interacts with the air (pushing it down)\u2014but those improvements still won\u2019t get you to 60 mph in a second.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The Roadster 2 relies on another form of force: compressed air shooting out the back. This is how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/rockets\/\" class=\"text link\">rockets<\/a> work. Since most of us don\u2019t have rockets handy, consider the simple experiment of a toy car propelled by an inflated balloon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Once the balloon is released, the stretched rubber acts as a force that pushes the air out of the balloon and through an attached tube. But since this air has mass, it will take a force to accelerate it from rest to its exhaust velocity. Here&#8217;s the cool thing about forces\u2014they are an interaction between two things (like the balloon and the air). That means that when the balloon\u2019s walls push on the air, the air pushes back with an equal force in the opposite direction\u2014an example of Newton\u2019s third law. This push-back force on the balloon is what makes the toy car accelerate. Instead of a wheezing balloon, the Roadster 2 relies on a tank of compressed air.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"paywall\">Flying Cars (Sort Of)<\/h2>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Now, we get to the flying car part. The Roadster 2 uses the same compressed-air method to push up on the car and get it off the ground. That\u2019s stretching the limits of the term \u201cflying,\u201d especially because there&#8217;s only a few seconds of thrust that it can get from the tank before the pressure drops. With a lower tank pressure, the air comes out with a lower velocity and less thrust. If I was going to have a flying car, I would hope it could at least fly for 10 minutes of air time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">There&#8217;s a second issue\u2014acceleration. Since the rockets only last for a short time, they need to apply a large force to get a change in velocity and get the car to leapfrog over a truck or some other obstacle. But with a large force, you also get a large acceleration, and large accelerations are generally bad for humans. We can estimate this acceleration using <a data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/opensourcephysics.github.io\/tracker-website\/\" class=\"external-link text link\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/opensourcephysics.github.io\/tracker-website\/&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/opensourcephysics.github.io\/tracker-website\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">video analysis<\/a>. I&#8217;m going to use Tracker Video Analysis to mark the location of the car in each frame as it jumps over a Tesla Semi truck. Because we know the truck is about 4 meters tall, we can get the position of the car as a function of time. Here is the vertical position of the Roadster 2 during this jump.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/physics-behind-tesla-flying-roadster\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The upside-down Roadster 2 makes for a compelling sales pitch, but the suction actually has a strong use case when it\u2019s driving right side up. Frictional force is the thing that makes a car accelerate. More frictional force, better performance. Pushing the car down means you can accelerate faster and brake faster and make sharper [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1537,262,728,334,263,197],"class_list":["post-9012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-air-resistance","tag-dot-physics","tag-forces","tag-friction","tag-physics","tag-tesla"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Physics Behind Tesla\u2019s Flying Roadster - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To understand how Elon&#039;s new car hops, glides, and sticks upside down, we&#039;re going to need to talk about friction and force.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Physics Behind Tesla\u2019s Flying Roadster - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To understand how Elon&#039;s new car hops, glides, and sticks upside down, we&#039;re going to need to talk about friction and force.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-20T13:16:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Roadster_56.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"SILVYBRAND\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"SILVYBRAND\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=9012#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=9012\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"SILVYBRAND\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8bdc6818a5b6ef5b9745e468818e37f3\"},\"headline\":\"The Physics Behind Tesla\u2019s Flying Roadster\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-20T13:16:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=9012\"},\"wordCount\":578,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=9012#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/Roadster_56.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"air resistance\",\"dot physics\",\"forces\",\"friction\",\"physics\",\"Tesla\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Gadgets\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=9012#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=9012\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=9012\",\"name\":\"The Physics Behind Tesla\u2019s Flying Roadster - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=9012#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=9012#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/Roadster_56.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-20T13:16:34+00:00\",\"description\":\"To understand how Elon's new car hops, glides, and sticks upside down, we're going to need to talk about friction and force.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=9012#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=9012\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=9012#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/Roadster_56.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/Roadster_56.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":670},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?p=9012#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Physics Behind Tesla\u2019s Flying Roadster\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog\",\"description\":\"Your daily dose of lifestyle, fashion, travel, beauty, and inspiration \u2014 living boldly, stylishly, and confidently.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/SILVYBRAND-LOGO.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/SILVYBRAND-LOGO.jpg\",\"width\":1115,\"height\":522,\"caption\":\"Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8bdc6818a5b6ef5b9745e468818e37f3\",\"name\":\"SILVYBRAND\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e7db54afd7d090e59e1a481fd3e6812d467eb2a3b81e7a3092023acfc59a496b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e7db54afd7d090e59e1a481fd3e6812d467eb2a3b81e7a3092023acfc59a496b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e7db54afd7d090e59e1a481fd3e6812d467eb2a3b81e7a3092023acfc59a496b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"SILVYBRAND\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/silvybrand.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Physics Behind Tesla\u2019s Flying Roadster - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog","description":"To understand how Elon's new car hops, glides, and sticks upside down, we're going to need to talk about friction and force.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Physics Behind Tesla\u2019s Flying Roadster - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog","og_description":"To understand how Elon's new car hops, glides, and sticks upside down, we're going to need to talk about friction and force.","og_url":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012","og_site_name":"Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog","article_published_time":"2026-10-20T13:16:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":670,"url":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Roadster_56.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"SILVYBRAND","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"SILVYBRAND","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012"},"author":{"name":"SILVYBRAND","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8bdc6818a5b6ef5b9745e468818e37f3"},"headline":"The Physics Behind Tesla\u2019s Flying Roadster","datePublished":"2026-10-20T13:16:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012"},"wordCount":578,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Roadster_56.jpg","keywords":["air resistance","dot physics","forces","friction","physics","Tesla"],"articleSection":["Gadgets"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012","url":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012","name":"The Physics Behind Tesla\u2019s Flying Roadster - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Roadster_56.jpg","datePublished":"2026-10-20T13:16:34+00:00","description":"To understand how Elon's new car hops, glides, and sticks upside down, we're going to need to talk about friction and force.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Roadster_56.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Roadster_56.jpg","width":1280,"height":670},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=9012#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Physics Behind Tesla\u2019s Flying Roadster"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/","name":"Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog","description":"Your daily dose of lifestyle, fashion, travel, beauty, and inspiration \u2014 living boldly, stylishly, and confidently.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#organization","name":"Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog","url":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SILVYBRAND-LOGO.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SILVYBRAND-LOGO.jpg","width":1115,"height":522,"caption":"Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8bdc6818a5b6ef5b9745e468818e37f3","name":"SILVYBRAND","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e7db54afd7d090e59e1a481fd3e6812d467eb2a3b81e7a3092023acfc59a496b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e7db54afd7d090e59e1a481fd3e6812d467eb2a3b81e7a3092023acfc59a496b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e7db54afd7d090e59e1a481fd3e6812d467eb2a3b81e7a3092023acfc59a496b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"SILVYBRAND"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/silvybrand.com"],"url":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}