Just a bit more solar car stuff. Here are some story-telling charts. Challenger class winners #3 Brunel / Delft ran a perfect race. Orange dots show control stops and black squares show overnight stops. The dashed line shows their average speed of 86.6 km/h. Team #48 Neumann had to make some kind of repairs on Wednesday … … Continue reading →| Scientific Gems
The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge is over (see also the results and my illustrated teams list), and I am thinking about technology issues. There have been several interesting examples, but the two most notable are the fins originally pioneered by the Belgians (and now used by three other teams) and the perovskite solar cells from … … Continue reading →| Scientific Gems
In a Scientific Gems tradition, here are my personal Gem awards for the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge 2025 (see also my illustrated teams list): The Back on Top Gem goes to #3 Brunel (Delft) for their 8th Challenger class win. They previously won in 2001–2007 and 2013–2017. The Chart Climber Gem goes to #7 Sonnenwagen … … Continue reading →| Scientific Gems
Above and below are what I hope are final race charts for the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (see also my illustrated teams list). Update: both charts have been edited following some BWSC decisions. I have also tabulated the results, with a comparison to the 2023 race. The improvements of Aachen #7 (from 13th in 2023 … … Continue reading →| Scientific Gems
At the end of Day 5 of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, nine teams have reached the finish line in Adelaide (see chart above). Other teams are still strung out along the road (see map below). Kogakuin (#88) was initially marked as out of the race, but they are back in. Delft/Brunel (#3) has won, … … Continue reading →| Scientific Gems
Day 4 of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge road race ends with the top 3 teams (Delft/Brunel, Leuven/Innoptus, and Twente) having passed Port Augusta. They should arrive in Adelaide tomorrow. With only minutes between teams, strategic overtaking will be important during tomorrow’s racing. Two teams on the map marked “(?)” have an out-of-date location. ANU … … Continue reading →| Scientific Gems
Day 3 of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge road race ends with the top 3 teams (Delft/Brunel, Leuven/Innoptus, and Twente) approaching Coober Pedy. At the tail, ANU and Minnesota are still bravely holding on. The chart below shows Challenger class times into Erldunda (or for those not yet at Erldunda, estimates based on time into … … Continue reading →| Scientific Gems
Day 3 of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge road race begins with the top 3 teams (Delft/Brunel, Leuven/Innoptus, and Twente) reaching Alice Springs. At the tail, ANU and Minnesota are bravely holding on.| Scientific Gems
Day 2 of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge road race is over (see my illustrated teams list). Above are control stop times for Cruisers (Solaride got into Dunmarra at 09:28:26 and into Tennant Creek at 14:47:02) and below for top Challengers (Delft/Brunel got into Barrow Creek at 13:30:00). Delft/Brunel have deployed their fin. Challengers Adelaide … … Continue reading →| Scientific Gems
Day 1 of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge road race is over (see my illustrated teams list). The 2023 Challenger podium (Leuven, Twente, Delft) is again charging ahead. There is a pack of ten …| Scientific Gems
Delft (Brunel/Nuna) on the track at Hidden Valley. Of the 37 teams intending to race in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge on 24 to 31 August (see my illustrated teams list), ten appear to be in…| Scientific Gems
On June 19, I had the great pleasure of attending the solar car reveal from the Australian National University (ANU) team, who race as number 41 (see the YouTube livestream). They are my local team…| Scientific Gems
Recently, the Chicago Sun-Times and other newspapers published an AI-generated summer reading list that consisted mostly of nonexistent books. Now, if you are going to recommend nonexistent books, …| Scientific Gems
Here is a list of 13 teams from 7 countries (10 Challengers and 3 Cruisers) intending to race in the Sasol Solar Challenge in South Africa this September. Scrutineering begins on the 8th at Red Sta…| Scientific Gems
The Blood Miles by Andrew Moody (382 pages, published 2023) I’m a sucker for post-apocalyptic science fiction, and I recently read, with great enjoyment, the recent novel The Blood Miles by Andrew …| Scientific Gems
