Last Lab Recap
Detailing: Went down into shop and looked at hubs with the wheel group, then went back to sanding the oil and gas tanks. They also experimented with the grit of the sandpaper (600, 800, + 1000 grit).
Electrical: Learned how to sauter: how to cut the wires, take out the insulation, and solder them together. Also looked at the wiring harness.
Top and Bottom End: Wanted to check the oil pump system, but to do that they had to remove the gears. They also learned why the clutch plates are designed the way they are and that there is a duplex chain on our motorcycle.
Frame: Started by disassembling the fork, then they degreased the parts. Today, they’re going to put them through the part cleaner in the shop.
Wheels: Sanded the hubs
Finding Top Speed of the Motorcycle
Problem: There is a chain connecting the crankshaft to the clutchbasket. There are two sprockets connected to the clutchbasket; in the highest gear these two sprockets spring together. That will turn the rear wheel. We want to figure out how fast the rear wheel is spinning when the crank is 6000rpm (top engine rpm). The second thing we want to figure out is how fast would the motorcycle be going at that pace.
Answer: The motorcycle is going 60mph.
A sprocket engaging with the chain (meshes with the chain); a gear has teeth, which look very similar to the procket, and they mesh with another gear, so there’s a point of contact and when you turn one, you end up turning another (involute shape, roll on one another).
Reading Discussion
- Discussion Leader: Charles
- Chapter 11: Wake up and have a nice morning in the hotel, decide to take a different route which goes by Yellowstone Park, talks about Phaedrus and lateral truth, then goes into Phaedrus’s history in the army in Korea.
- P.124, engine backfires because there wasn’t enough oxygen. Backfiring through the intake can be harmful; the flame will burn all the fuel in the intake all the way up to the carburetor, creating a volume of air with no air and no fuel. This means the engine runs lean and if this keeps happening, the engine can stall out. Higher than normal engine temperatures, the engine being deaccelerated too quickly, too much alcohol in the fuel, etc. can all cause backfire.
- A priori motorcycle: Narrator explains that Hume’s approach got Kant thinking. Kant introduces the idea of reason. A priori is knowledge that’s theoretical; for example, when driving a motorcycle you know that gas is being used. Even though you can’t see or sense it, you know it’s happening and can reason that gas is being used.
- Chapter 12: Wake up in the hotel again and start talking about the DeWeeses, who they’re going to stay with the next day. The narrator starts talking about how Phaedrus knew them in college.
- A lot of electrical problems are mechanical: if something’s not working, shake it.
- Chapter 13: They’re going to Boseman. The narrator talks about how he tried to discredit the university he worked with and his students disagreed with him. He describes what the mission of the university is: to seek truth.
