Something Interesting
I found this while free surfing on the web. I thought it was pretty cool, enjoy!
Racing car driver
Race drivers contend with g-forces so great that they are subject to three or four times the normal force of gravity. From a standing start, a Formula One car will reach a hundred miles an hour in just under three seconds. And in that first second the driver’s head is pushed back so violently that his face distends, giving him a ghostly smile.
Within another second he has changed gears twice, and each time he does so, the acceleration force smashes him back into the seat again. After three seconds, accelerating upwards from a hundred miles an hour towards two hundred, his peripheral vision is completely blurred. He can only see straight ahead. The 800-horsepower engine is screaming at 130 decibels, and each piston completes four combustion cycles 10,000 times a minute, which means that the vibration he feels is at that rate.
His neck and shoulder muscles are under immense strain, trying to keep his eyes level as the g-force pushes his head from side to side in the corners. The strong acceleration makes blood pool in his legs so that less is delivered to the heart, which means that there’s less cardiac output, forcing the pulse rate up. Formula One drivers’ pulses are often up to 180, even 200, and they stay at 85 percent of that maximum for almost the entire length of a two-hour race.
Breathing quickens as the muscles call for more blood – speed literally takes your breath away – and the whole body goes into emergency stance. A two-hour emergency. The mouth goes dry, the eyes dilate as the car travels the length of a football field for every normal heartbeat. The brain processes information at an astonishing rapid rate, since the higher the speed, the less the reaction time. Reactions have to be not only quick but also extraordinary precise, no matter how great the physical strain. Split seconds may be mere slivers of time, but they are also the difference between winning and losing a race, or between entering and avoiding a crash.
In short, a Formula One driver has to be almost preternaturally alert under conditions of maximum physical pressure. Obviously, the adrenaline is pumping . . . But in addition to the physical fitness of top athletes, he needs that chess player’s mind as he assimilates telemetry data, calculates overtaking points, and executes a racing strategy. All of which is why speed is so dangerous for most of us: we simply have neither the physical nor the mental stamina to handle it.
Psychologically, what happens in a race is still more complex. The muscles, the brain chemicals, the laws of physics, the vibration, the conditions of the race – all these combine to generate a high level of excitement and tension in the body, making the driver feel absolutely clearheaded and alert. And high.
came from this website: http://www.laoisedcentre.ie/LENGLISH/engrwww/app1.html
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