| MadSci Network: Engineering |
Hello Excellent question. Jacques Charles discovered Charles’s law. He was experimenting with various gasses to determine how they behaved at different temperatures. What he discovered was that the volume of a gas increases with increased temperature. Charles’s law states that if the amount of gas and pressure remain fixed, the volume of the gas is directly proportional to the temperature in degrees Kelvin. The classic example is that of a hot air balloon. When the air is heated, the balloon expands and displaces cooler air. The displaced air exerts an upward force on the balloon and the balloon rises. Many people attribute this to the old adage, “hot air rises”. Charles explained in part why hot air rises. Automotive shock absorbers are mostly hydraulic. Hydraulic in a modern sense refers to the use of fluid flow to do work of some kind. In the case of the shock absorber, the flow of a fluid, oil in this case, dampens the motion of a spring. As the springs in an automobile suspension are compressed, a piston moves inside a cylinder in the shock absorber and forces oil through a narrow passage. The resistance to oil flow through this small passage develops a force that slows the spring’s compression rate. This same procedure is repeated in reverse as the spring extends. So the answer to your question is that automotive shock absorbers are hydraulic devices and as such are not subject to Charles’s law. If you would like more info on Jacques Charles and or shock absorbers, you might try these web sites: http://www.iao.com/howthing/shockhtw.htm http://library.thinkquest.org/12596/charles.html Good Luck Greg
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