Friends of the Buckeye Bullet!

How fast did the Buckeye Bullet really go?

For those who like numerology, here are some numbers to ponder:

Here is where the Buckeye Bullet places relative to some other high-speed performances:

120 mph: Cedar Point Top Thrill Dragster, the world fastest rollercoaster
236 mph: fastest lap in an Indy 500 (Eddy Cheever, Jr. in 1996)
272 mph: Buckeye Bullet new international speed record
275 mph: speed achieved by Shinkansen Bullet train
315 mph: Buckeye Bullet new U.S. Record
567 mph: typical cruise speed of a Boeing 747 at 35,000 ft
761 mph: speed of sound at sea level

763 mph: Andy Green's all-time land speed record

But, how fast is 315 mph???
Think of it this way, if it helps...

507 Km/h, or over half a Megameter per hour - that is around Mach 0.5!
462 feet per second
141 meters per second

And now, for some creative units:

846,720 furlongs per fortnight (a Megafurlong per fortnight is equivalent to 372 mph!)
4.9 million yards per year
40 Million fathoms per week

Any way you look at it, that's really FAST.

At that speed, a mile goes by in less than 12 seconds, and if you could find the right freeway (not to mention the appropriate batteries), you would drive from Columbus to Detroit in about 35 minutes...

Not bad for a group of engineering undergraduates. What will they do when they grow up?

Meanwhile, we are just so proud of them!

Go Bucks, Go Fast!

Giorgio Rizzoni