Talbot Frameworks Tandem - Sik Fadez Family Chariot

What we need is a Man of Science to work out the energy generated by a spirited descent of Ventoux by a laden tandem.
Right then

The major component of this would be kinetic energy (rather than the component of gravitational potential energy you are resisting by going down a slope), so lets estimate this.
Assume m = 175kg (tandem, two riders, loaded)
At thirty five miles an hour, v = 15m/s approx.
Kinetic energy = 1/2 m * v squared
= circa 19,700 joules (or Watt-seconds)

If you wanted to stop all of this dead in ten seconds, you'd need to apply 1970 watts.
Or five seconds, 3940 watts.

#fridayscience
#flamestorm
#caveatemptor

My understanding* is that peak loads are not a problem per-se, disc brakes are pretty good at dealing with big decelerations (albeit, not again and again and again), it's the desire to have a brake constantly applied to keep speeds within a certain range where discs start to run out of answers as they generate more heat than the system can radiate away.

At which point the fluid can start to boil and goodbye to the brake until things cool down again.

So we're not looking for a dead stop, we're looking at applying (say) 500 watts opposed to the direction of travel, as it were.

Or to put it another way, venting 500 watts worth of kinetic energy as heat.

*Which may be wrong