Reason for posting this: none.

You’ve probably been racking your brains all morning how cars manage to get round corners without their wheels sliding and jumping around. Well, thanks to the good people at Chevrolet, your worries are over:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYAw79386WI&feature=youtu.be[/video]

Cool vid 🙂

But wasn’t the diff fitted to horse-drawn carts 100 years before this?

The thing I’ve never quite understood about diffs (and I get the general principles of how power can be varied well enough) is how the system ‘knows’ how to split the power. I might be being dense here.

is how the system ‘knows’ how to split the power.

it doesn’t you get uneven power at each wheel hence the need for a LSD (in performance cars) so as to keep drive on the inside wheel.

Why would a cart pulled by a horse need a diff? Unless it has a single axle rather than independent ones, he says working it out for hmself 🙂

I figured a pony and trap with independent axles not a shared axle.

Why would a cart pulled by a horse need a diff?

They don’t carts have freewheels on an axel – they’re not driven through the axel

The thing I’ve never quite understood about diffs (and I get the general principles of how power can be varied well enough) is how the system ‘knows’ how to split the power. I might be being dense here.

They don’t, power is sent to the wheel that moves the easiest, which is why you can get stuck with just one wheel in the mud. So your average car without traction control is essentially 1 wheel drive as soon as it leaves the tarmac.

They don’t, power is sent to the wheel that moves the easiest, which is why you can get stuck with just one wheel in the mud

Unless, as Klunk says, you have a limited slip diff. Or your’e into Sporting Car Trials and have fiddle brakes. Or a diff lock. Or…

But wasn’t the diff fitted to horse-drawn carts 100 years before this?

Cart with a differential:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South-pointing_chariot

Great vid!

Cart with a differential:

from your link

“The hypothesis that there were south-pointing chariots with differential gears originated in the 20th Century. People who were familiar with modern, e.g. automotive, uses of differentials interpreted some of the ancient Chinese descriptions in ways that agreed with their own ideas. Essentially, they re-invented the south-pointing chariot, as it had previously been re-invented several times in antiquity. Working chariots that use differentials have been constructed in recent decades. Whether any such chariots existed previously is not known with certainty.”

Shall we bring it up to date? Such a simple way of differentiating torque it seems.
[video]http://youtu.be/MjaCbpw84kw[/video]

Anyone have a Lego Car Chassis when they were younger??

You’ve probably been racking your brains all morning how cars manage to get round corners without their wheels sliding and jumping around.

No, I had Lego as a kid.

Damn – beaten to it.

HoratioHufnagel, exactly what I thought as soon as they added the big drive great 🙂
That quattro one, it’s all very impressive engineering I am sure, but I want dowelling spokes and a motorcycle display team! That first film was simply splendid!

I’ve still got mine 🙂

I fancy a Jam Handy now

If you liked the differential video your going to love this one. Mechanical firing control computer for a world war era warship. Fascinating.

[video]https://youtu.be/s1i-dnAH9Y4[/video]

Here’s another geek out. Amazing stuff

[video]https://youtu.be/GuCdsyCWmt8[/video]