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Wheels can also lose traction when surface conditions reduce available traction such as on snow and ice. As an open differential delivers only enough torque to cause the "weakest" wheel to spin, if one drive wheel is stationary on a low traction surface (mud, ice, etc.), the deliverable torque is limited to the traction available on it.
The wagon-wheel effect (alternatively called stagecoach-wheel effect) is an optical illusion in which a spoked wheel appears to rotate differently from its true rotation. The wheel can appear to rotate more slowly than the true rotation, it can appear stationary, or it can appear to rotate in the opposite direction from the true rotation ...
Furthermore, automatically locking differentials can cause a loss of control on ice where an open differential would allow one wheel to spin and the other to hold, while not transferring power. An example of this would be a vehicle parked sideways on a slippery grade. When both wheels spin, the vehicle will break traction and slide down the grade.
A burnout (also known as a peel out, power brake, or brakestand) is the practice of keeping a vehicle stationary and spinning its wheels, the resultant friction causing the tires to heat up and smoke. While the burnout gained widespread popularity in California, it was first created by Buddy Houston, his brother Melson and David Tatum II at Ted ...
The greatest effort is required from a locomotive when starting. At this time, if the engineer applies too much power to the wheels (i.e., for a steam locomotive, the engineer opens the regulator too far) the turning force applied to the wheel will greatly exceed the opposing friction force affected by the surface of the rail, and the wheel will turn without being able to move the train forward.
A burnout is when a car intentionally locks the front wheels to hold the car in place while spinning the rear wheels. The dynamic friction of the spinning tire against the road causes significant amounts of the tire's rubber to be deposited onto the road surface, and increased temperature from friction usually creates dense white smoke.
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It accounts for the "wagon-wheel effect", so-called because in video, spoked wheels (such as on horse-drawn wagons) sometimes appear to be turning backwards. A strobe fountain, a stream of water droplets falling at regular intervals lit with a strobe light , is an example of the stroboscopic effect being applied to a cyclic motion that is not ...