• intensely_human@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    If you back up with your front wheels turned all the way to the side, the back corner of your car barely moves. Mostly of the movement is your front end swinging to the side.

    This can be useful when you need to make a sharp turn. It allows the back corner of your vehicle to make a very tight turn around the opening of the parking space.

    Basically going forward, to turn the vehicle 90 degrees might take say 30 feet of forward motion. Going backward, it might only take 3 feet of “forward” motion to turn the car 90 degrees.

    Much tighter turning radius for the end of the car opposite the turning wheels.

    This is why a forklift’s steering control works by turning the back wheels not the front wheels. Allows that forklift to rotate around the front, without the front moving at all.

    Forklifts have a more extreme version of this design since you can turn those wheels full sideways (and even a little backwards if you want), but the same principle operates in any vehicle with one set of turning wheels.