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Formula One Racing Just a Matter of Crunching the Numbers
Si24601 writes "Sauber Petronas Formula 1 team have launched Albert, their new supercomputer. With aerodynamics contributing a claimed 75% of the performance of the current bread of cars, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) calculations have become increasingly important. Dalco's 530 AMD Opteron processor, 2.3 Tflop/s Supercomputer, with 1 TB RAM and 11 TB of storage, may just be up to the task." Other readers submitted links to stories on F1 Live and Formula1.com.
and without high performance bread, you may as well
not enter the race
mmmmmmmmmmm....car bread, tastiest of all breads.
Need for Speed 1000000 right there.
'Every story, if continued long enough, ends in death.' --Ernest Hemingway
The other 25% being due to lightweight wheat products apparently ;-)
Sure, technology is important in that sport, but don't discount the importance of world-class drivers like Schumacher, et al.
A blog like any other.
I imagine that at some time we will approach the level of technological sophistication where we no longer call some competitive event a sport. That is to say, at some point the human element will contribute a trivial amount to the overall performance. I am not saying that F1 racing is at or near that point - I have tremendous respect for the athletes that drive those cars under extreme conditions. But imagine a technologically advanced version of something like dogsledding, where the human is along for the ride. Do we continue to call it a sport? Or does it become some other type of contest?
From complex wind shear modelling to the amount of flour to throw in the composite, almost all of the attention is paid to the machine -- it makes me wonder if they're shaving less time off the total than if they put this kind of focus on the driver (proper diet, reflexive training, etc.) Gran Turismo 3 demonstrates quite well the types of skills necessary to take on the track.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Bears are smart, you insensitive clod!
But seriously, I view anything people do with wrenches as magical.
It's so bad that when I go to a mechanic and they ask, "So, how big an engine's in that thing?", I hold my hands about two feet apart.
sigs, as if you care.
From the red areas in the images you can clearly see that round tires are inefficient. I propose shaping them oval as a step in optimizing the aerodynamics.
The Williams team also uses a scupercomputer to do a lot of their modelling, thanks to one of their major sponsors HP and a Linux supercomputer.
75% !! bread is evil and must be stopped...
l
I've done a little research, and what I've discovered should make anyone think twice....
- More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread users.
- Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
- In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid,yellow fever, and influenza ravaged whole nations.
- More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.
- Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average American eats more bread than that in one month!
- Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low incidence of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and osteoporosis.
- Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after as little as two days.
- Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder" items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.
- Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 80 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
- Newborn babies can choke on bread.
- Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.
- Most bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical babbling.
In light of these frightening statistics, we propose the following bread restrictions:
- No sale of bread to minors.
- A nationwide "Just Say No To Toast" campaign, complete with celebrity TV spots and bumper stickers.
- A 300 percent federal tax on all bread to pay for all the societal ills we might associate with bread.
- No animal or human images, nor any primary colors (which may appeal to children) may be used to promote bread usage.
- The establishment of "Bread-free" zones around schools.
http://www.obnoxiousfumes.com/archives/000376.htm
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
On Fifth Gear recently (11/22) Jackie Stewart was saying that Schumacher makes more mistakes every Gran Prix weekend than any GP racer he has ever know.
Reliance on tech, whether track data or ASR and ABS in race cars has arguably reduced the ultimate skill levels demanded of racing's elite.
The MotoGP bikes put on a great show, but compared to F1 the machines are simpler and the engineering budgets are smaller. Motorcycle racer Eddie Lawson probably put it best when he said,
"The truth about racing cars is that if a competent driver is in a great car, he will win. Yet a great driver in a bad car has no chance. On motorcycles, maybe a good rider on a bad bike won't win, but he definitely has a chance. In cars, you have no chance without the best machinery." (Interview is in the Dec '04 Motorcyclist mag. Not online yet.)
Does that sound like F1?
From TFA: "To achieve the same computing performance, the entire population of the city of Zurich would have to multiply two eight-digit figures every four seconds for a whole year."
Does anyone have a conversion from "multiplying two eight-digit numbers" to "reading through a Library of Congress?"
Who doesn't like free music?
No, a couple of Ferrari engineers will shop around the aero and other build info from the last year's car. Another team will give the former Ferrari engineers a job, integrate the information into their computers, make improvements, and then tell the cops it can't be removed because it may give away their car's secrets(where have I heard this argument before? SCO is creating a new way of doing business).
In all seriousness, having the ideal optimal design is unlikely. Most teams have their own engines, which bring different performance characteristics. They even change the engine mapping during pitstops. There are two different tire companies, a number of different compounds. Take in different track temps, air temps, etc. Then you take different tracks(Monaco vs. Monza), and there will never be an optimal design, just an optimal compromise.
This doesn't include the driver, which is the biggest difference. Look at the aggresive drivers like Montoya or Alonzo, compared their more conservative teammates. Similar/same cars, much different speeds.
It probably means that the Linux version is statically linked to every library it could possibly need.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
What you fail to realize is that this technology is available to everyone. Even if i have a technological advantage for a short period of time, my car driver, sled driver, swimmer, runner, or whatever still have to perform with the new equipment or training techniques.
Then, when everyone else has the same technology, it falls back solely on the shoulders of the competitors. Sure technology has them going 100% faster, but everyone is going the same 100% faster. And the new breed of competitor has to be better to deal with the new tech.
And if they turn into remote control cars, then the comptetitors are still human, and still have to be good at something, have fast reflexes, etc.
The human will never just be along for the ride. A lot more, or different, things will be required from them, but they won't be just along for the ride.
I think Rossi proved that you can have a shit bike and still win. This year he went to the worst bike on the grid from the best the previous year. He absolutely owned everyone this season and last. Bikes aren't quite as bad off as F1, obviously.