{"id":279,"date":"2023-02-16T16:43:09","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T14:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lbscience.org\/en\/2025\/06\/02\/the-challenges-of-a-tiny-car\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T04:36:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T02:36:26","slug":"the-challenges-of-a-tiny-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lbscience.org\/en\/2023\/02\/16\/the-challenges-of-a-tiny-car\/","title":{"rendered":"The Challenges of a Tiny Car"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the Ant-Man movies, Scott Lang and others shrink and enlarge themselves or objects in their surroundings by using Pym Particles\u2014fictional subatomic particles [1] capable of affecting the space between atoms and thereby allowing objects to change size. The idea of shrinking and enlarging objects is not new; it has already appeared in books (see Alice in Wonderland), movies (remember the masterpiece \u201cHoney, I Shrunk the Kids\u201d?) and many more. Ant-Man is unique in that it combines size manipulation with the superhero genre.<\/p>\n<p>Although the science behind the movie is not accurate, it provides a fun and exciting way to engage with complex scientific concepts and ideas, and serves as a reminder that science fiction can be a powerful tool for scientific and technological inspiration and education. The film presents a variety of scientific ideas, such as extreme size change, ant control and a clumsy thief who becomes an Avenger, but we will focus specifically on the tiny cars whose rapid driving and frequent size changes yield spectacular action scenes.<\/p>\n<p>So what is actually wrong with the tiny cars? Watch, for example, the chase scene in \u201cAnt-Man and the Wasp\u201d:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Hot Wheels Scene - Ant-Man And The Wasp (2018)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Oq5U-tV0XA8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In this scene a miniature car (Hot Wheels) grows to the size of a regular car, then shrinks again, all while driving at normal-car speed. In addition to road hazards that are not adapted to the size of a tiny vehicle (e.g., a small pebble would be a giant wall; a slight pothole would be a trench), the car will encounter complex engineering problems:<\/p>\n<p>Because the car\u2019s wheels are tiny, meaning they have a very small circumference, they must spin faster to cover the same distance in the same time. Why? If, for example, the diameter of the tiny wheels is 1 % that of regular wheels, then to maintain identical distance and time the tiny wheels would have to rotate at 100 times the RPM of regular wheels. And because the centrifugal force on the wheel increases linearly with the wheel\u2019s radius but increases quadratically with rotational speed, the rotational loads on the tiny wheel would be 100 times greater! Such a high rotational speed in a tire not designed for it would lead to many problems that would hamper our miniature Avenger: rubber tearing, fractures due to overload, increased wear on the wheel axle and more. Maybe it would work for a very short time, but not as shown in the movie.<\/p>\n<p>Scientific accuracy: 1\/10<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s move on to mass. Shrinking the car will not reduce its mass, because the gaps between atoms are mass-less (so \u201celiminating\u201d them is meaningless). But hey, it\u2019s Hollywood! And we really want to be able to carry a car or a tank in our pocket:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ant Man - And There&#039;s A Tank !!\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jZlIeuIZd04?start=100&feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, even if we assume that changing the vehicle\u2019s size changes its mass, the light weight of the miniature car\u2014relative to its speed\u2014will yield low road grip to the point that the car could lift off when it meets a mild ramp (as happened to Peter Dumbreck [2]). That is why race cars, especially Formula 1, look the way they do: to allow them to drive\u2014and especially to corner\u2014at such high speeds, their downward lift must be increased [3]. The car\u2019s design therefore includes a relatively low center of gravity and the addition of many aerodynamic elements such as front and rear wings, a splitter and more.<\/p>\n<p>Scientific accuracy: 0\/10<\/p>\n<p>Now a bit of aerodynamics: because of their small size, the relative drag force\u2014the force acting opposite the direction of travel and slowing down the car\u2014will be greater in miniature cars than in regular cars. This is because the car\u2019s surface area decreases with the square of its size, whereas its mass decreases with the cube; therefore drag relative to mass increases by a factor of 100! A tiny car therefore cannot travel at such speeds unless the engine power compensates significantly.<\/p>\n<p>The drag coefficient will also increase thanks to the Reynolds number [4], a dimensionless quantity [5] expressing the ratio of inertial forces to viscosity forces (low viscosity: air; high viscosity: honey) for a given fluid (such as air or water). The smaller the car, the smaller the Reynolds number. This quantity has many implications, and in our case: the smaller the Reynolds number, the greater the influence of viscosity. In other words, the car will \u201cfeel\u201d as though it is moving through viscous air\u2014through something that resists its motion\u2014more than a larger car would, thereby further increasing the relative drag (because the drag coefficient rises). In addition to the effect on drag, there will also be an effect on the relative downward lift, i.e., the car\u2019s grip on the road, which will greatly increase the risk of loss of control or rollover.<\/p>\n<p>Scientific accuracy: 0\/10<\/p>\n<p>Even if our heroes manage to overcome all these issues, the power and control mechanisms used to drive miniature cars must be adapted: the engine, brakes and steering from regular vehicles are not suitable for use in tiny cars. This is in addition to questions such as the amount of fuel required and the engine power that would have to increase, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Scientific accuracy: 1\/10<\/p>\n<p>The movie presents a nice imaginary physical principle that might solve many engineering problems. Yet the day when Pym Particles will solve quantum-computing problems or influence car racing at either regular or miniature size is far. But hey, at least we won\u2019t have a bunch of ants on the countertop! And maybe we\u2019ll write sometime about other burning issues that appear in the film, like ant behavior and how to control them. Who knows.<\/p>\n<p>Hebrew editing: Haggai Gelernter<br \/>\nEnglish editing: Elee Shimshoni<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>References:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/marvel.fandom.com\/wiki\/Pym_Particles\">Pym Particles<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=e21ZjwZGjiQ\">A race car becoming airborne due to low road grip<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lbscience.org\/en\/2021\/05\/04\/how-do-planes-fly\/\">Lift<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/topics\/engineering\/reynolds-number\">Reynolds number<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lbscience.org\/en\/2021\/09\/14\/zero-dimension\/\">Zero Dimension<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the Ant-Man movies, Scott Lang and others shrink and enlarge themselves or objects in their surroundings by using Pym Particles\u2014fictional subatomic particles [1] capable of affecting the space between atoms and thereby allowing objects to change size. The idea of shrinking and enlarging objects is not new; it has already appeared in books (see [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":1370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engineering","category-physics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Challenges of a Tiny Car - Little, Big Science<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lbscience.org\/en\/2023\/02\/16\/the-challenges-of-a-tiny-car\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Challenges of a Tiny Car - Little, Big Science\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the Ant-Man movies, Scott Lang and others shrink and enlarge themselves or objects in their surroundings by using Pym Particles\u2014fictional subatomic particles [1] capable of affecting the space between atoms and thereby allowing objects to change size. 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