A very strong carbon fiber part made by Real Carbon Inc.

www.realcarbon.com

We made a very strong carbon fiber part and our client asked us how strong is it?

So we thought let’s park a SUV on the part.

Not the most scientific test in the world, but we had a spare part and thought why not?

So we parked our SUV on it!

Then we thought, well let’s look at the science and the math’s:

The force exerted by a parked car on an object is determined by its weight, as the force of gravity pulls it downward. To calculate the force, you would use the formula:

Force (F) = Mass (m) × Gravity (g)

For example:

• If a car has a mass of 1,500 kg (approximately 3,300 lbs), and assuming standard gravity (9.8 m/s²), the force it exerts on the surface below is:

1,500 kg × 9.8 m/s² = 14,700 N (Newtons)

This is distributed over the area of contact between the car and the object (like tires or the object directly beneath it). If the contact area is small, the pressure (force per unit area) would increase, potentially damaging the object.

Since this part had a relatively small surface area contact with the car, the pressure which equals the force defined above divided by the area, was ca. (15,000\0.001)\4 = 3,750,000 Pa.

In layman’s terms, that’s a lot!