How do car brakes stop a fast car?
Motion into Heat
How do car brakes stop a fast car?
You're flying down the highway at sixty miles an hour — a mile a minute — and up ahead the light turns red. You press a pedal with your foot, and two tons of metal stops smoothly, safely, right where you want it. How does stepping on a little pedal stop all that speed?
Here's the secret: brakes turn your car's motion into heat. All that speed — the energy of two tons rolling forward — has to go somewhere. The brakes grab it and turn it into warmth that floats away into the air. Speed becomes heat. Motion becomes stillness.
