Would you collect more rain on the windscreen of your car if you were moving or if you were still?
Andrew Ford
Filed under: Environment & Natural World Big Qs, Unanswered Big Questions
Would you collect more rain on the windscreen of your car if you were moving or if you were still?
Posted on March 2, 2010 by Beki Hill
It really depends on whether the average distance between droplets coming down directly on your car if you are sat still is greater than the average distance between the droplets in the direction your car is travelling. If the droplets are closer horizontally than vertically, then probably your windscreen will get wetter, over the same period of time if you are driving through the rain. There is the added complication of the relative velocity of the rain and your car to think about. Fortunately, we have windscreen wipers so we don’t have to worry about these things.
Yes, a still windscreen will only get what falls on it where’s if you moved at the speed of light through a storm you would pick up every drop in your path at that height off the ground in an instant. a moving car gets more rain on it then a stationary one