Research Blog 1

Problem: The problem of the experiment is to determine the ideal angle of attachment of trailer tails to the rear of tractor trailers.

Hypothesis: Based upon existing research, the trailer tail angle to reduce the force of wind resistance the greatest will be fifteen degrees, followed by thirty degrees, and finally zero degrees.

When deciding on a idea, we wanted to choose a meaningful topic. This led us to decide upon a topic relating to preserving resources limiting pollution, which led to topic of decreasing fuel consumption which can also benefit the economy. With oil prices rising yet again, it is becoming more important to increase the fuel efficiency of semi trucks due to their impact on the U.S. economy. In addition, in order to preserve the Earth's precious non-renewable resources such as oil and to reduce air pollution, new methods of reducing fuel consumption must be discovered. Trailer tails will accomplish these goals by reducing fuel consumption and lessening demand of

The bulk of sources for this research are from Academic Onefile. This database is full of full-text peer-reviewed research articles. This makes it great for reliable and up to date scientific information. Academic Onefile is free to access for Michigan residents through the Mel.org databases section. Another great source for peer-reviewed full text research was Google Scholar. The NASA aeronautical database also contains many great sources for our research regarding the nature of air drag.