Meet Professor Diandra Leslie-Pelecky
Photo by Sarah Pfeiffer Photography, Inc.
One afternoon in 2005, I was channel surfing and happened to catch a group of racecars coming around the corner of a track. Without warning, one of the cars wiggled ever so slightly and then slammed into the outside wall. It took a while to clean up the track, so I got to watch quite a few replays of the crash. Each viewing made me a little more agitated because it just didn't make sense to me. There were no engine failures, no flat tires, no contact with the other cars… So what happened?
I'm a physics professor. People like me go into physics because we don't like it when we can't explain the things we see around us. Understanding why a car would (seemingly for no reason) veer off into a wall seemed like something I ought to be able to figure out.
As I looked for answers, I learned a couple of things not at all related to the wreck.
- As I studied the aerodynamics, kinematics, chemistry and even physiology that underlies NASCAR, I realized that much of what I needed to know if I was to understand how to be successful in racing is the same material I teach my classes at the unversity–most of which are made up of non-science majors.
- I learned that there are a lot of NASCAR fans and that they are passionate about understanding why their drivers are (or aren't) winning.
- I met and got to know crew chiefs, mechanics, tire and shock specialists and a bunch of other people associated with racing. These people (all of whom were incredibly generous with their time and knowledge) come from many different educational backgrounds, but they all use science and they all have a passion for their work.
As teachers of math and science, we often hear students asking why they have to learn things, or when they will ever use what we're teaching them. We don't always do a good job of answering their questions, or of showing them the excitement of discovery that got us into math and science in the first place. As standardized testing pushes math and science teaching more and more into the realm of memorize and regurgitate, I am reminded of a discussion I had with a Vice President at one of the race shops I visited. I asked if they had any physicists working there.
He thought for a moment and said, "Yes, we have one guy with a physics degree, but I doubt he uses anything you taught him."
"Oh, I bet he does," I shot back, "Because we taught him how to think."
Math and science are all about asking good questions and figuring out how to come up with good answers. For NASCAR race teams, the big question is usually, "How do I make the car go faster?", but the crew chiefs, mechanics and the driver have to figure out what question to ask to learn whether they should be changing the springs or the swaybar.
I just finished writing a book, The Physics of NASCAR®, about my experiences as a scientist at the race track and the race shop. Now I'm turning my attention to how I can use what I've learned to motivate kids and adults to get interested in math and science. Stock Car Science will be a resource for teachers, students and the perenially curious who, like me, get bothered when they can't explain things.