This teaching guide is designed to complement the 20-minute video, Think Smart.  Click here to request the video.  Please note that video supplies are limited and may no longer be available.

On life's highway, roadblocks can pop up at any moment. On an actual highway, planning for the future can be even trickier; especially when traveling at speeds of up to 330 mph. Professional drag racers know this all too well. In high-stress situations where a split second can mean the difference between the loser and winner, Pro Heads-Up Class drag racers have to be on their toes at all times.

Anthony Vestal, communications manager for the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) says, "No matter how much money you spend on technologies, if you don't have a driver with quick reflexes, it's not going to matter."

Quick response is important in drag racing because of reaction time–the time it takes a car to depart once the light turns green. The reaction time of the driver and car can be a factor in who wins, no matter who has the faster clock time. That's because the race is judged on the basis of which car can cover the track faster from the time the green light flashes. Vestal says the clock time often causes confusion among spectators at drag races when the first place award goes to someone who had a slower elapsed time.

Time Out
Yes, it is possible to have a slower time and still win. For example, at the finish line, one car might have a time of 4.60 seconds and another, 4.58 seconds. The car posting 4.58 seconds is the winner, right? Well, not necessarily. Determining the winner of a drag race can become confusing. This is where mathematics comes in.

The clock time actually can be called the elapsed time or the amount of time since the car left the starting line. But how long did the car sit at the starting line? The car with the faster time of 4.58 seconds might have sat at the green light longer.

The perfect reaction time is .400 seconds, whereas the average is .500, Vestal says. Any reaction time at .399 or below is called a red light. Therefore, it is the goal of drag racers to have a reaction time between .400 and .500 seconds.  (See Racing and Placing Activity) 

Front-Seat Science
Drag racers in the Pro Heads-Up Class compete on quarter-mile stretches, Vestal says, and the current record time is 4.486 seconds.  In order to cover the area, which is about the length of six football fields, the car had to reach 330 mph. To make a car go that fast, science must take a front seat.

The cars are fueled by a mixture of nitromethane and alcohol. Oxygen is sucked through the super charger and fed to the engine. The pistons use the fuel to create mini explosions, giving the car the 6000 horsepower needed to reach such high speeds so fast.

Determining just the right mixture for a car's fuel involves several factors. That's why each racing team has its own formulas for various weather conditions. This particular NHRA class has about 24 events all over the country. For optimum performance, the fuel formula must compensate for climate, weather conditions and altitude of the race location.

While race teams have traditionally kept notebooks with all their top-secret formulas, Vestal says many of the teams now have the information stored on computers. This allows them to get a print out, and plan more efficiently for the race.

Vestal says all the same math and science principles apply to the Junior National Hot Rod Association, although the younger racers travel at slower speeds, usually 40-50 mph, and race a shorter distance, 1/8-mile.  For additional information about the JNHRA, log onto www.nhra.com/junior/YouCanRace/index.html.

Classroom Discussion...
1. Drag racers rely heavily on math and science to win races. How does that compare to other sports?

2. What type of climate and weather conditions would be best for drag racing cars?

Safety Research
Whether traveling at 330 mph on a racetrack or 75 mph on a freeway, staying alert is a must. While the average high school student will never set foot in a drag racing car, day-to-day driving on normal roads and highways has plenty of risks.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) tries to lessen these risks through crash-avoidance research and public-awareness campaigns.

One such project is the Automated Collision Notification System. The goal of this project is to create and test a "Mayday" system that would detect a crash and automatically alert emergency services for help. The objective is to decrease emergency response time by transmitting the crash location and severity data. This system could be especially helpful in rural areas where there are often large time lapses between the time of the crash and the victim's arrival at a hospital.

Another NHTSA project is the National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS), a joint venture with the University of Iowa. The NADS allows for crash-avoidance research without exposing the driver to physical harm. It is designed to give the sensation of driving on a real highway. The driver has a realistic field of view, including rearview mirror images. The driving scene is three-dimensional and photorealistic and includes an auditory system that compensates for every imaginable traffic sound.