Dimensional Analysis
On the evening of August 5, 2012 Pacific Daylight Time, NASA's Mars Rover, named Curiosity, entered Mars' atmosphere at 20,000km/h. Drag slowed it down to around 1600km/hr, at which point a parachute opened. This parachute slowed the Rover more, to about 320km/hr, or 90 m/s. Finally, after rockets decelerated it completely, the rover was lowered to the surface of Mars. Every step of this dance was carefully choreographed and rehearsed in many experiments here on Earth. But how could NASA engineers be sure that their designs would work on a totally different planet? The answer is a problem-solving method called dimensional analysis. This video is part of the Problem Solving video series. Problem-solving skills, in combination with an understanding of the natural and human-made world, are critical to the design and optimization of systems and processes. Hi, my name is Ken Kamrin, and I am a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. Dimensional analysis is a powerf...