Speaker 1: Welcome to you Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: Josh Clark. There's Charles w Chuck Bryant. Jerry's over there
Speaker 1: with her timer wagging her finger, which means it's time
Speaker 1: to start. Stuff you should know. The podcast just got
Speaker 1: out of ruler. She ready to wrap us on the knuckles. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can get out of line. It's like a nun
Speaker 1: it's right and Chuck. Before we get started, I want
Speaker 1: to tell everybody they can follow us on Twitter at
Speaker 1: s Y S Kid Podcast. Oh yeah, they can join
Speaker 1: us on Facebook dot com slash Stuff you should know.
Speaker 1: Why are we going backwards? Huh? Okay, if you want
Speaker 1: to send us an email, you can send it to
Speaker 1: Stuff Podcast at how Stuff Works dot com. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: have a beautiful old website called Stuff you should Know
Speaker 1: dot com where all sorts of other neat stuff happens too.
Speaker 1: All right, so this listener mail I'm just gonna call.
Speaker 1: Uh oh wait, sorry, you gotta save it and saving
Speaker 1: it Chuck. Yes, were you in boy Scouts or cub Scouts? Nope?
Speaker 1: I went to one cub Scout meeting and uh I
Speaker 1: didn't go back because The very first meeting I was
Speaker 1: at was there beginning of their candy sale, the ritual
Speaker 1: sacrifice now at the beginning of their candy sale, and
Speaker 1: I just didn't As a little kid for some reason,
Speaker 1: I didn't like my first meeting them saying, here's a
Speaker 1: bunch of candy, go sell it. Yeah, but you know
Speaker 1: they front you're a bunch of candy. They let you
Speaker 1: walk away with a box of can It turned me off.
Speaker 1: And I'm not knocking it. It's a great organization, but
Speaker 1: I just never went back. I can't imagine. It's not
Speaker 1: the best one to start out on. Plus I was
Speaker 1: I was a Cub. I did cub scouty things just
Speaker 1: in life because you know, it was a big into
Speaker 1: camping and stuff. And I was taught wilderness survival at
Speaker 1: a young age, so I was like, I was my own,
Speaker 1: had my own scouting troop. Your parents just dropped you
Speaker 1: off in the woods. Once back, Yeah, it all worked out.
Speaker 1: Made my way back about a year later. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: was none, no worse for the wear. So you never
Speaker 1: made a pine with Derby car hunt, No, Well, I've
Speaker 1: never made a pine with Derby car. But in Industrial
Speaker 1: arts class I made the the CEO two racing cars,
Speaker 1: remember those, yeah, which sort of it's sort of like
Speaker 1: the Pine with Derby, but it's powered by noxious gasses?
Speaker 1: Is it not just gas? Now it's actually CEO two. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it might be noxious though it's not obnoxious,
Speaker 1: but it's noxious and then it will kill you. Well,
Speaker 1: it's a kind of a funny story actually, I and
Speaker 1: my brother one of course, because he's my brother cheering
Speaker 1: him on. Now. He won, uh, the school, and then
Speaker 1: he won county, and then he went to state for
Speaker 1: the and I don't think he won state, No, but
Speaker 1: he did place most handsome. He did most Handsome Racer.
Speaker 1: And then I, of course, like everything else, I tried
Speaker 1: to copy my brother. I'm still doing today, and um
Speaker 1: sure I am and he um and I tried to
Speaker 1: copy his design and mine just turned out a little
Speaker 1: crooked and not quite a straight and um, I didn't
Speaker 1: even win in my class, not alone the school man.
Speaker 1: So that just goes to show you my brother is
Speaker 1: better at everything than me. That's a great story. His
Speaker 1: was awesome, man, that that thing flew, and mine was
Speaker 1: like knocking against the track and was missing a tooth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a pale impression. Pale impersonation. But that is
Speaker 1: a great lesson. You gotta forge your own way. That's right,
Speaker 1: you know, my ugly little car. That's that's the lesson
Speaker 1: of this Pinewood Derby episode. You have to create your
Speaker 1: own Pinewood Derby car, and not just figuratively but metaphorically
Speaker 1: as well. Well, what's the Pine with Derby? I think
Speaker 1: some people there's a lot of people that are like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is the best, and then the
Speaker 1: other of your like, what so the Pine with Derby
Speaker 1: is the nation's premier gravity racing event. Yeah. It takes
Speaker 1: place around the country around this time, I think, right,
Speaker 1: does it beat street luge? Uh? It's a great point.
Speaker 1: I said, this is the second best. Okay, miniature gravity racing.
Speaker 1: What about many street luge man? Um? And yeah, I
Speaker 1: think around It takes place around this time of year.
Speaker 1: Oh is it? Yeah? Cub scouts and boy scouts around
Speaker 1: the country, around the world. Are they into it now?
Speaker 1: To make little wooden cars um and race them? And
Speaker 1: it uses nothing but gravity, the force of gravity, little
Speaker 1: angular momentum, reduction of friction, that kind of thing to
Speaker 1: see whose car is fastest? Yeah. So um, we'll get
Speaker 1: in to the details in the history, but it's basically,
Speaker 1: you know, like you said, a track that starts on
Speaker 1: a hill and it has a little, um call it
Speaker 1: a pin, but it's like a little stick basically holds
Speaker 1: the car in place right at the at the front,
Speaker 1: and then they pull a lever and those sticks drop
Speaker 1: and then um, it's like the starting gate and then
Speaker 1: it rolls. Because anyone who listened to our slinky episode.
Speaker 1: When the cars are up there pressed against the starting pin,
Speaker 1: they've got tons of potential energy. Then right when that
Speaker 1: that starting pin has removed, that potential energy turns to
Speaker 1: kinetic energy and gravity pulls them downward to the tune
Speaker 1: of like twenty miles or so. But the cool thing
Speaker 1: about Pinewood Derby Racing is that all of the UM
Speaker 1: cars start out the exact same They're blocks of wood
Speaker 1: with the same wheels, the same axles, And it's up
Speaker 1: to the cub scouts in their moms to uh craft
Speaker 1: this thing, to to make it slightly different enough that
Speaker 1: it wins the race. It beats these other cars that
Speaker 1: were also the same kinds of blocks of wood before. Yes,
Speaker 1: or uh, you're not so concerned with winning and you
Speaker 1: just want a cool looking car and you want to
Speaker 1: have a good experience with your parents. That was me
Speaker 1: with my car, the Pinewood Derby car I made with
Speaker 1: my Did you do it? Really? One most creative? There's
Speaker 1: a coke bottle, No way, and I like you a
Speaker 1: real coke bottle. You got the piece of wood and
Speaker 1: carved into a coke bottle. Yeah, the would, okay because
Speaker 1: other people, you know, they can there's all sorts of
Speaker 1: things you can do now, Yeah, but you couldn't use
Speaker 1: a coke bottle and do it. You'd be disqualified on
Speaker 1: the spot and maybe laughed out of the place. No,
Speaker 1: there's like there's different versions now like there there can
Speaker 1: be like the regular hardcore race and then the one
Speaker 1: that's a little more fun where you can use different Uh. Oh,
Speaker 1: I got you, Yeah, I got you. But I mean
Speaker 1: that's not the origin. The origin was, like you said,
Speaker 1: just straight up woodblocks. So and let's talk about the
Speaker 1: origin of this year. Well did you win that? I
Speaker 1: want to hear about your one most creative at all?
Speaker 1: So you were into just the cool looking thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as a cub scout, a boy scout cub scouts, did
Speaker 1: you boy scout? You've had enough I did. Actually, um,
Speaker 1: my dad was the dead parent. That's nice, but I
Speaker 1: quit mid season and he continued on as the dead Parents. Really,
Speaker 1: there's more than one awkward boy Scout meeting at my
Speaker 1: house where like I just went hung out, you like,
Speaker 1: wander through eating a twinky. Yeah. My dad was like,
Speaker 1: I can't believe this interesting, so he stuck it out.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's kind of admirable. I guess I had a
Speaker 1: thing where I, um, they the Cub Scouts teach and
Speaker 1: Boy Scouts teach that you just respect your elders as
Speaker 1: a rule of thumb. Well, I've met too many elderly
Speaker 1: people who I didn't feel deserved respect across the board,
Speaker 1: and that I disputed this idea enough that I left. Wow, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's pretty awesome. That was why I left because I
Speaker 1: had to sell candy. You left because there were a
Speaker 1: bunch of jerky old people in your community. I just
Speaker 1: didn't think that everyone deserves blank respect. I think you
Speaker 1: earn respect absolutely. You know, Hey, that's a pretty forward
Speaker 1: thinking thing for a little young Josh. You just didn't
Speaker 1: want to go. No, it really was that you're like
Speaker 1: the meetings with the same night at the eight team.
Speaker 1: So yeah, there was one meeting where I just sat
Speaker 1: there and watched the eight team really loud. Well, my
Speaker 1: dad and the rest of the Scouts are trying to meet.
Speaker 1: That's pretty good stuff. So yes, my dad and I won.
Speaker 1: I think it's most creative category for the coke bottle
Speaker 1: at Southwick Mall and Toledo, Ohio, that's where they had
Speaker 1: the racist It's pretty funny. And you still drink like
Speaker 1: a gazillion Cokes a day, not cokes well, Cooke zero
Speaker 1: or whatever. Yeah, I've tried to limit it. I don't
Speaker 1: drink a gazillion. I would say I drink a lot
Speaker 1: of water and coffee too. You just you're you get
Speaker 1: beveraged up like no one I've ever seen. Now. It's weird,
Speaker 1: you know. It's like I constantly have to be drinking something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't get it. Hey, that's your thing. Huh, it's
Speaker 1: no big deal. It's not like you're like downing bottles
Speaker 1: of vodka all day long. Just red bull um. All right,
Speaker 1: So you want to talk about the history of this thing,
Speaker 1: let's don Murphy. May nine is when the first Pinewood
Speaker 1: Derby was held in southern California, Manhattan Beach, California, which
Speaker 1: is where you means, and my friend Molly is from.
Speaker 1: You can be from worst places in the world. You
Speaker 1: know who else pretty sweet either is from or lives
Speaker 1: in Manhattan Beach. I looked this up who Kevin Nealon,
Speaker 1: Don Dokin uh and then some other people too. I
Speaker 1: think our buddies, uh Luke and Catherine Ryan live in
Speaker 1: Manhattan Beach. Oh do they? That is a nice town.
Speaker 1: It's like a small town feel on the California's coast,
Speaker 1: like on the boardwalk that connects like all the other towns.
Speaker 1: Pretty nice. That's where the Lost Boys live? Was it? No?
Speaker 1: I think they were like Santa Cruz or something like. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think they were a little more north all right,
Speaker 1: so very nice history of Manhattan Beach residents. Don Murphy
Speaker 1: was a cub Scout leader for Pack to eighty and
Speaker 1: um he had he had some kids that wanted to
Speaker 1: because there's this other race called the soapbox derby. This
Speaker 1: is when you actually put your child in this thing
Speaker 1: to be injured and put and push him down a hill.
Speaker 1: But he had some kids. You have to be a
Speaker 1: certain age to do that, and um, his boys were like, Dad,
Speaker 1: I want to be in the soapbox Derby, and he said,
Speaker 1: well son, you're too young. So he tried to think
Speaker 1: of something that you could do together with his boys
Speaker 1: and came up with the Pinewood Derby, which is a
Speaker 1: pretty cool idea. Yeah you know. Yeah, it's basically making
Speaker 1: a soapbox derby racer too small for human to fit
Speaker 1: and be injured in. It's correct. Yeah, much safer, I
Speaker 1: would imagine. So. Um. Apparently, like at this first one,
Speaker 1: they pulled out all the stops immediately. Um, they came
Speaker 1: up with a regulation wood blocks, wheels, and axles that
Speaker 1: everybody had to use the same things. Right. The axles
Speaker 1: are just nails, yeah, but they had wooden struts that
Speaker 1: the nails went into too. Um, And the they came
Speaker 1: up with a pretty cool track, like a thirty two
Speaker 1: or forty something foot track. The first one was thirty
Speaker 1: one okay. And then but they also used like old
Speaker 1: doorbells to create like, um timekeeper, so whichever car passed
Speaker 1: the thing first would set off a light in that
Speaker 1: lane above that lane. He's got a little more advanced
Speaker 1: since then, Yes, I mean that's that's that's pretty advanced
Speaker 1: for the first one. Yeah, not bad for the early
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties. No, and so the first this first one,
Speaker 1: I'm at three in Manhattan Beach. Um. Apparently it was
Speaker 1: just such a total hit that the guy who invented
Speaker 1: at Don Murphy was like, this is some this is
Speaker 1: a thing. Yeah, how can I make money on it?
Speaker 1: Apparently he didn't. Now he didn't, but Boil. A lot
Speaker 1: of people have since then, which we'll get to as well.
Speaker 1: A lot of um entrepreneurial fathers were like, hey, I
Speaker 1: can make some dough on this by designing these things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: good for them, all right, you know so um Don
Speaker 1: Murphy with the other route and so I don't want
Speaker 1: to share this with the world. This is my creation. Um,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to get in touch with the Boy
Speaker 1: Scouts of America and say, hey, guys, I've got this thing.
Speaker 1: And the Boy Scouts said, that's great. We're sending out
Speaker 1: Boys Life Magazine to cover this. It's gonna be hot
Speaker 1: off the presses. Remember that um an airplane where the
Speaker 1: little uh the kids reading Now the nun is reading
Speaker 1: Boys Life Magazine and the little boys reading Nuns Life
Speaker 1: Magazine next to that's pretty funny. So Boys Life Magazine
Speaker 1: is like the official magazine of boy Scouts, right, and
Speaker 1: they came out and covered it, and I think nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty four the next year, but it was just kind
Speaker 1: of like a little blurb a little right up one
Speaker 1: page or it didn't really get the extent of this across. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and um by ve they had over three hundred people
Speaker 1: racing for the championships in l A's Griffith Park. And
Speaker 1: um now, I think since its inception, over fifty million
Speaker 1: kids have done this and a ninety million including parents,
Speaker 1: which is a little lazy to me. They are just
Speaker 1: like they're just had two parents per kids. Object a few,
Speaker 1: let's make it ninety million. But yeah, it's become a
Speaker 1: huge hit and a tradition that lives on today. Um
Speaker 1: and kind of the same way. I mean, they've gotten
Speaker 1: way more um involved in making these things as fast
Speaker 1: as possible, but the general gist of it and the
Speaker 1: rules are about the same. Yeah, and let's talk about
Speaker 1: the rules right after this break, So chuck to make
Speaker 1: these things fair. All pinewood derby cars start off the
Speaker 1: exact scence, little woodblock, some regulation wheels and axles, right,
Speaker 1: and then it's up to you, the scout, to make
Speaker 1: it your own and um, this article funny enough says
Speaker 1: that aerodynamics don't really play a role. That is not
Speaker 1: the case at all. No, they play um uh if
Speaker 1: you want to speak scientifically, and eleven percent um reduction
Speaker 1: and speed just using the wood block. Yeah, if you
Speaker 1: if you make it more aerodynamic, So it's um, it matters,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't matter quite as much as you think
Speaker 1: it might, right, but it does have some effect. Absolutely
Speaker 1: eleven and so um, there are some some guidelines to
Speaker 1: making a soapbox derby racer Pinewood man, it's gonna get
Speaker 1: me all episode. That's okay, Just remember soapbox equals death
Speaker 1: of child, pinewood equals fun for child. Great, Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: I think I got it now. That's right. Um, no
Speaker 1: car can weigh more than five ounces and um we'll
Speaker 1: get to the tricks of the trade later. But you
Speaker 1: want your car to weigh that five ounces? Yes, you
Speaker 1: don't want it to weigh four because faster cars or
Speaker 1: heavier cars canna be fast. That's right, because of gravity
Speaker 1: and mass, well sort of, I mean that technically a
Speaker 1: heavier car it's it's all about weight distribution, it is.
Speaker 1: But a heavier car is going to be subject to
Speaker 1: the force of gravity more than a lighter car because
Speaker 1: it has more more mass for gravity to exert an
Speaker 1: effect on cars. Cannot be longer than seven inches. I
Speaker 1: think initially they were a little bit longer than that,
Speaker 1: but they settled on seven which is good. Uh. They
Speaker 1: cannot be more than two and three quarters of an
Speaker 1: inch wide, and the clearance of the car on the
Speaker 1: track must be no more than three eighths of an inch.
Speaker 1: And the clearance is very important because Pinewood Derby cars
Speaker 1: are called rail cars. They ride along a central rail
Speaker 1: where the car and the wheels straddle a rail that
Speaker 1: goes underneath it. Right, it's not just in a lane
Speaker 1: to bump back and forth. Yes, very good point. Uh.
Speaker 1: And the last rule, of course, um we mentioned it's
Speaker 1: all gravity fed. You can't have any starting device or
Speaker 1: any uh CEO two cartridge or motor or anything. It's
Speaker 1: it's just wheels guiding it down the track. If the
Speaker 1: jet flames shoot out of the back of your Pinewood
Speaker 1: Derby car, it's kind of get disqualified. You'll get some
Speaker 1: wows of the crowd for sure. Well you'll also get
Speaker 1: some wows if you carve a cool coke bottle or
Speaker 1: make a NASCAR or general leaves a big one. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm sure. But what I basically found in researching this
Speaker 1: is you can't have both. Um, you can either have
Speaker 1: a really cool looking car or a really fast car,
Speaker 1: because the faster ones are not very like great looking. No,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people just go with a wedge
Speaker 1: because the wedge is aerodynamic. It's a lot more aerodynamic
Speaker 1: than there's the block. It's easy to make, and apparently
Speaker 1: they're very fast. Usually that's right there. I saw one.
Speaker 1: If you type in cool Pinewood Derby cars on a
Speaker 1: Google image search, comes up with some cool Pinewood Derby cars.
Speaker 1: But one of them is this kid holding his car.
Speaker 1: It's like this weird reddish brown and has Spider's paint
Speaker 1: it on it. He named it Derby. Death's my favorite
Speaker 1: pine with Derby car. That's your favorite kid? Yeah? Um mine,
Speaker 1: it would have just been me holding up my sort
Speaker 1: of oddly shaped thing that says not as good as
Speaker 1: your brother's. Um. You start off with um, either like
Speaker 1: a balsa wood or um. What's the other kind of would?
Speaker 1: They suggested? Pine pine? This is a little softer, easier
Speaker 1: to carve that's the pine with Derby car. Oh well yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true. But bosses I think lighter, So it is,
Speaker 1: but again you don't necessarily want lighter. Well that's a
Speaker 1: good point, thank you. But again you want the weight
Speaker 1: distribution correct, so you may want the body lighter so
Speaker 1: you can control that weight more. Yes, it's just a
Speaker 1: little tip. No, that is a good point right there.
Speaker 1: You want to control where the weight goes. That's right.
Speaker 1: So yeah, maybe boss is the way to go. Well,
Speaker 1: they do have the kits you can buy that are
Speaker 1: fully uh stocked with everything you need. Or you can
Speaker 1: go ala carte because there are a lot of companies
Speaker 1: out there now that make um all manner of add
Speaker 1: ons and special wheels and axles and all kinds of
Speaker 1: things to make your car faster. Yeah, and you you
Speaker 1: if you are building a Pinewood Derby racer right now,
Speaker 1: and you're like, yeah, that sounds pretty great. I got
Speaker 1: some money to spend on this thing. Um, you will
Speaker 1: want to check your local council's rules because some of
Speaker 1: them are like, nope, you can use nothing but what
Speaker 1: comes in the official Pinewood Derby kit Um and other
Speaker 1: places are right exactly, and now go sell some candy
Speaker 1: after the Pinewood Derby is over. Um, then other places
Speaker 1: are like, yeah, go nuts. Most places agreed, like you
Speaker 1: can't send the kid off to a third party and
Speaker 1: have a third party make your Pinewood Derby racer for
Speaker 1: you and send it back. Oh yeah, no way. Other
Speaker 1: places say that can't. Well no, that's the whole point.
Speaker 1: It's just supposed to be like a parent kid activity
Speaker 1: of learning about physics, engineering, building, working. Yeah, probably losing sportsmanship, yes,
Speaker 1: not throwing a punch when you lose stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And if you just basically buy a racer, I mean,
Speaker 1: what kind of like villainous rich kid are you if
Speaker 1: that's what you're you're doing at the Pineood Derby? You know, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're what's his face from Pewee's Big Adventure? Oh man,
Speaker 1: what is his name? Do you know it? I'm completely blanking.
Speaker 1: I can picture him chewing that black gum. Yes, I
Speaker 1: can picture him in that big bathtub swimming pool in
Speaker 1: his home. Well, we'll figure it out. It will come
Speaker 1: to one of us. I don't feel the need to
Speaker 1: email because this will be weeks later. We got it,
Speaker 1: We got to cover it. Um or you could be
Speaker 1: the antagonist in the movie down in Derby Man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: did you go to IMDb on that one? Very briefly?
Speaker 1: Did you see the movie poster? That is everything you
Speaker 1: need to know about that movie is captured in the poster. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a film about a Pinewood derby two parents who
Speaker 1: of course two fathers who were lifelong rivals. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: all you need to say. Well, was starting uh the
Speaker 1: Boss from Ally McBeal. Yeah, Greg German. Yeah, I'm a
Speaker 1: big German fan. But are you I think it's good?
Speaker 1: He was great in that show. I never saw that show.
Speaker 1: That was a good show. Wasn't he on the West
Speaker 1: Wing to Uh? No, you're thinking of Bradley? Um, oh,
Speaker 1: I like that guy. Yeah, great incentive a woman Bradley Cooper.
Speaker 1: No not I you mean Whitford. Yes? His his His
Speaker 1: best role though, seriously, was in Billy Madison. I never
Speaker 1: saw that either. What right? Yeah, you gotta see that one.
Speaker 1: Happen to Gilmore are classic films. I've seen some of
Speaker 1: Happy Gilmour For some reason, those Adam Sandler and the
Speaker 1: Chris Farley movies. I never really saw what I didn't
Speaker 1: see Black Sheep, Well black it's fine, but you never
Speaker 1: saw Tommy Boy parts of it. I know, I don't
Speaker 1: know what was going on. One are those like when
Speaker 1: I was in college or just right after? But yeah maybe, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was like a dark being a little too sophisticated
Speaker 1: for those you know, No, not at all. They really
Speaker 1: are great movies. Like if if you don't like them,
Speaker 1: you're just being a snob. Like they're just funny movies
Speaker 1: that anybody can enjoy on just the basic level. I
Speaker 1: can assure you I didn't avoid them out of snobbery.
Speaker 1: But um, I think that was just like a weird
Speaker 1: period where I didn't see many movies. You were just
Speaker 1: watching nothing but Fellini, No, I don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: know what were you doing instead? I got just watching TV.
Speaker 1: I gotta find out what year they came out. I
Speaker 1: would say probably between four and nineties seven. Yeah that
Speaker 1: was college. And UM, I don't know. Okay, we'll just
Speaker 1: leave it. I just didn't see him all right. Where
Speaker 1: are we we are at? The Oh, I've got one. Um,
Speaker 1: if you do, um, if your counsel does allow outside helper,
Speaker 1: you'll if you can buy other parts, because a lot
Speaker 1: of times it's like, no, you have to use these
Speaker 1: but some of these companies have figured out ways around it.
Speaker 1: Like your Pinewood Derby car is going to be inspected conceivably,
Speaker 1: especially if it's really fast and it's a winning car,
Speaker 1: They're gonna really look at it to make sure you're
Speaker 1: not cheating. One of the ways that you can make
Speaker 1: your car faster is with wheels. Lighter wheels, so less
Speaker 1: mass equals less friction, I believe, and um, so they
Speaker 1: spin faster and it moves faster, right call onion skin
Speaker 1: wheels right now, Like you usually can't use those, but
Speaker 1: some of these companies offer ones that outwardly look the
Speaker 1: exact same. It has all the markings and everything, but
Speaker 1: they've removed a lot of the mass. So they bought
Speaker 1: like official boy Scout Pinewood Derby wheels and have altered
Speaker 1: them so and then sell them for like thirty five
Speaker 1: bucks for a set thirty five bucks to cheat at
Speaker 1: Pinewo Derby. Basically, yeah, yeah, it's so disheartening. It is
Speaker 1: a little disheartening also because even if it is legal
Speaker 1: or allowed, it's like, um, I guaranteed all the kid's
Speaker 1: parents are gonna be willing to spend thirty five bucks
Speaker 1: on like aftermarket wheels that have had some of the
Speaker 1: mass removed to make the cargo faster. Yeah, or the
Speaker 1: kid who can't afford that kind of stuff. Anyway, it's
Speaker 1: not on a level playing field, you know. That's what
Speaker 1: I mean. That just thinks. Yeah, well, I mean beyond
Speaker 1: the parents saying they shouldn't pay for that, Like you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, let's talk about the track. The
Speaker 1: starting gate is generally about four ft high because and
Speaker 1: I thought this is adorable, because that's about it. That's
Speaker 1: a good height for a little cup scout, like it
Speaker 1: made sense. So they didn't want to make it so
Speaker 1: high that you know, they couldn't do it. Although um,
Speaker 1: usually the kid is not actually placing the car. It's
Speaker 1: UM an official that's doing that. Yeah, the contains are
Speaker 1: usually too sticky. Yeah, I got like lollipopcum all over
Speaker 1: the um. And that's another reason why you should mark
Speaker 1: UM the front car, the front of your car, in
Speaker 1: the back of your car, because if you don't do
Speaker 1: like the best job at the aerodynamics, you might not
Speaker 1: be able to tell the difference between the front and
Speaker 1: the back and it might not be you placing it.
Speaker 1: So just put a little like F and a b
Speaker 1: on the underside to make sure they know what they're doing.
Speaker 1: It'll either be you placing the car, the official placing
Speaker 1: the car, or the Grand Marshal of the race, Greg
Speaker 1: German placing the car as part of his duties. So
Speaker 1: it's four ft high, about thirty two to forty five
Speaker 1: ft long UM. The number of lanes are from two
Speaker 1: to six, although they talk about the semi legendary twelve
Speaker 1: lane model, which was probably pretty boss. Sure, I say, like,
Speaker 1: speed this thing up, get as many lanes going as
Speaker 1: you can. I know that. You know, you could like
Speaker 1: have ten thousand scouts racing with the twelve laner in
Speaker 1: an hour. You know, Chuck, this track thing is kind
Speaker 1: of like, say you have a twelve lane track. Depending
Speaker 1: on the type of race you run, it could actually
Speaker 1: make the whole thing go a lot longer because a
Speaker 1: lot of people say these tracks, some of them are great,
Speaker 1: Like there are there's companies that do make tracks, like
Speaker 1: one's called micro Wizard. I think, and this get this
Speaker 1: guy came up with this company to build like really
Speaker 1: awesome aluminum tracks with UM timers that can UM that
Speaker 1: that are sensitive to I think to ten thousands of
Speaker 1: a second UM and so this guy is making these
Speaker 1: really great tracks, but not all tracks are created like that.
Speaker 1: That whole set ups like two grand. So if you
Speaker 1: have maybe an older wooden track or something like that,
Speaker 1: some critics of those kind of tracks say, well, then
Speaker 1: everybody needs to run a race and each one of
Speaker 1: those slots, and then you take the combined times to
Speaker 1: come up with an average, because some slots are going
Speaker 1: to be better than others. So if you had like
Speaker 1: a twelve a twelve lane track, oh yeah, you would
Speaker 1: have a very long day ahead of you. So that
Speaker 1: would not speed things up. It would do the opposite
Speaker 1: of speeding things up, all right, So I'd smash ten
Speaker 1: of those lanes and at least stump atom. Like you said,
Speaker 1: most of the really nice tracks are aluminum now, although
Speaker 1: they can still be wood. Uh. Sometimes the wood is
Speaker 1: surfaced and like Mason eyed or something like really slick
Speaker 1: um surface to make it as fast as possible, because
Speaker 1: that's what it's all about. So we're gonna get down
Speaker 1: to business what everyone's been waiting for, and tell you guys,
Speaker 1: how to make your regulation Pinewood Derby car as fast
Speaker 1: as possible. Right after this, So Chuck, we happened to
Speaker 1: go onto Boys Life Magazine today a couple of times
Speaker 1: and every day, alright is our homepage. Uh, and we
Speaker 1: looked at ways to make your Pinewood Derby car faster.
Speaker 1: One of the articles you found was from Mars Curiosity
Speaker 1: rover engineer who he and his son Um are into scouting,
Speaker 1: and they made a Pinewood Derby car and they decided
Speaker 1: to apply the scientific method to figuring out ways to
Speaker 1: make it faster. And this dude came up with this, um,
Speaker 1: these these pointers. Basically what is his name, His name's
Speaker 1: Mark Rober. He's a Nasha NASA engineer. Yeah, and he
Speaker 1: and his son are to be thanked for these pointers.
Speaker 1: All right. Well, speaking of point um, the first thing
Speaker 1: you want to do is avoid a pointed nose on
Speaker 1: your car. Good. You wanted to be flat um across
Speaker 1: the front because um, sometimes it will affect how it gets,
Speaker 1: how it reads across the finish line, which you don't want.
Speaker 1: I saw a hammerhead shark Pinewood Derby. It was off. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a pretty good example of what you want up front,
Speaker 1: that flat nose. Um. And the other thing too, is
Speaker 1: it may affect the way it rest on that pint
Speaker 1: at the start of the race. Yeah, because if it's
Speaker 1: cocked off to one side or the other, that car
Speaker 1: is gonna hit that middle rail and it's gonna be
Speaker 1: friction city and you're gonna go home crying in your
Speaker 1: in your pillow. That's right. Um. You want the weight,
Speaker 1: like we mentioned at the rear of the car, um
Speaker 1: about within an inch of that rear axle, and proper
Speaker 1: weight distribution accounts for about thirty six percent. I thought
Speaker 1: you said, oh no, those aerodynamics. Yeah, I was gonna
Speaker 1: totally nail you on that one the way. That's huge.
Speaker 1: And Um, what that means is you've got more potential
Speaker 1: energy because the center of mass is higher up on
Speaker 1: the track, right, So so you know, like with our
Speaker 1: water slides episode, the higher up you go in the stairs,
Speaker 1: the more potential energy you have. So even that extra
Speaker 1: like half an inch of weight distribution towards the back
Speaker 1: higher up, the more acceleration you're going to have on
Speaker 1: your car. Yeah, because if you if you think about
Speaker 1: the track like once it flattens out at the bottom.
Speaker 1: If the weight is on the frontier car and you've
Speaker 1: got two cars side by side and the weights on
Speaker 1: the front that one's already done, and the one with
Speaker 1: the weight at the rear it's still pushing it and
Speaker 1: that extra couple of inches is gonna make a big
Speaker 1: diff good point. And you, um, you might say, well
Speaker 1: then I want to put my weight all the way
Speaker 1: on the rear of the car. No, no, no, you
Speaker 1: don't want to because that means that, um, the front
Speaker 1: might pop a wheelie the whole way down. Again, it'll
Speaker 1: look cool, it'll be a crowd pleaser, but you're probably
Speaker 1: not gonna win that way. I would totally be a
Speaker 1: crowd pleaser because I know I couldn't win the speed portion,
Speaker 1: so I would just make one that like pops wheelies
Speaker 1: and does cool things. Um. Maybe that's why I was
Speaker 1: never cup Scott. I was thinking outside the box. You know.
Speaker 1: Um maximum weight, like we said, you want it to
Speaker 1: be that five ounce is very big. Oh. They recommend
Speaker 1: baking the wood block first. Start to get the all
Speaker 1: the XX moisture out of that. Bake it two fifty
Speaker 1: for a couple of hours, two hours, and it should
Speaker 1: um make your block of wood that much lighter. Because again,
Speaker 1: you want weight, you want the full five ounces, but
Speaker 1: you want to control. You want to control where you
Speaker 1: put that weight, not mother Nature, not God or Earth
Speaker 1: or anything like that. You want to control where that
Speaker 1: weight goes. Yeah, and um get you know you want
Speaker 1: your parents help with all this. Don't go throwing wood
Speaker 1: in the oven and crank in it up because it
Speaker 1: can catch on fire. You don't want that either. Well,
Speaker 1: yeah to fifty All right, here's one. Oh man, I
Speaker 1: know you're gonna talk about the three wheeler. I don't
Speaker 1: know that wasn't it. You need to check again with
Speaker 1: your rules. But apparently in some leagues they allow you
Speaker 1: and this is a very common thing now if they
Speaker 1: allow it to have one wheel not on the track
Speaker 1: at all, like the front left of the front right.
Speaker 1: Why would you want to do that? Well because less friction. Um,
Speaker 1: so they say about one sixty of an inch higher,
Speaker 1: so it never actually touches the track and that will
Speaker 1: give you a nine speed increase. Right, you only have
Speaker 1: three wheels touching the track at once never Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: pretty smart, but also probably cheating if they don't allow it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you want to check your rules again, because I mean
Speaker 1: that would suck to go to the trouble of measuring
Speaker 1: that out and um being like I'm gonna win and
Speaker 1: being disqualified because you didn't read the rules, Hope Stash,
Speaker 1: what were you excited about me saying? So a little
Speaker 1: more basic than that, but also very thrilling, is these
Speaker 1: things ride rails. You don't want your wheels to touch
Speaker 1: the rails. You don't want your car to touch the rails.
Speaker 1: So you want as true and straight in alignment as possible,
Speaker 1: so it goes straight down with as little friction as possible. Right,
Speaker 1: that's the old thinking. Okay, well let me finish my
Speaker 1: old thing. So that means you want the straightest axles possible.
Speaker 1: And this is a really cool way to figure out
Speaker 1: if you have straight axles or not. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: several axles that come in a package in your kit,
Speaker 1: and you want to figure out which ones are the straightest.
Speaker 1: You can't really tell just by looking at it. That's
Speaker 1: what you do is you get an electric drill, right,
Speaker 1: and you if ideally, you put it in a vice
Speaker 1: gript so it doesn't move at all. And you take
Speaker 1: your axles and you put them in the drill like
Speaker 1: a drill bit, and you turn the drill on and
Speaker 1: if the axle wobbles, it's not straight. The axles that
Speaker 1: wobble the least as they're spinning around the in the
Speaker 1: drill are the straightest ones. And those are the two
Speaker 1: that you want to use, or the four that you
Speaker 1: want to use. It would be too those are the
Speaker 1: two that you want to use. Yeah, and uh, not
Speaker 1: only that, but once you find your two, um, you
Speaker 1: want to polish them, like, don't just throw it in
Speaker 1: there because it's a little burrs and nicks and things
Speaker 1: that are going to slow your car down. So they say,
Speaker 1: again with your parents, either put it in that drill
Speaker 1: or a drill press is even better, and just spin
Speaker 1: the nail and get a sandpaper and saying those things
Speaker 1: down and keep going with that grit until you get
Speaker 1: to like two thousand grit. And you polished that axle
Speaker 1: to like where it's almost like a mirror. So some
Speaker 1: parents are gonna come home and they're like seven year
Speaker 1: old kids going to have a block of wood in
Speaker 1: the oven on two fifty with a belt stander, and
Speaker 1: they're gonna say, Johns and Chuck told me to no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I always get your parents help with this stuff. Again,
Speaker 1: that's the whole point anyway, activities together. Um so I
Speaker 1: mentioned that was the old thinking. This blew my mind
Speaker 1: the idea of bent axles and rail riding. So that's
Speaker 1: the latest and greatest with the axles they recommend now,
Speaker 1: and they make these devices, these little jigs that will
Speaker 1: do it for you to bend where the wheel actually
Speaker 1: connects about uh two of a bend, so it actually
Speaker 1: reduces friction and makes alignment easier. This makes sense to me.
Speaker 1: So what you've got then is your front tie front
Speaker 1: tires angled inward and your back tires angled out, and
Speaker 1: that makes what you want, like if you put it
Speaker 1: on just a flat surface and rolled it, you want
Speaker 1: it over the course of like ten ft to steer
Speaker 1: about an inch to the left or right, because rail
Speaker 1: riding is the new fastest way to raise your car.
Speaker 1: So I don't get that well it what they said
Speaker 1: was is this is the video I watched. This how's
Speaker 1: explained to me at least is um once you get
Speaker 1: to the bottom and level out. No track is perfect
Speaker 1: and even if you have your car perfectly aligned, it's
Speaker 1: gonna start wobbling on the track and slow you down.
Speaker 1: So the idea is if you have that one front
Speaker 1: wheel angled in it the right way and your back
Speaker 1: wheels angled the right way, you'll actually touch the rail
Speaker 1: and use the rail as a guide to keep you
Speaker 1: as straight as possible. So the friction that is lost
Speaker 1: is overcome by how straight it is and the lack
Speaker 1: of wobble. And they call it rail riding and that's
Speaker 1: like the newest thing to do, which goes counter to
Speaker 1: anything you would think. And and straight car racing, which
Speaker 1: is like to make everything perfectly straight so it doesn't move. Uh,
Speaker 1: sort of blew my mind. Be a little mind blowing, man,
Speaker 1: I'm with you. Um, graphite is something that you want
Speaker 1: to add. It's a dry lubricant and um, that'll add
Speaker 1: about seven percent to your speed. Pretty much everybody allows that.
Speaker 1: The graphite. Yeah, and everything I saw says just to
Speaker 1: get whatever kind of graphite. The the cheap stuff is
Speaker 1: just as good as the Yeah, it's all a big
Speaker 1: marketing scam apparently, because they said how to graphite graphite,
Speaker 1: its graphite. So they'll put like, you know, super speed
Speaker 1: graphite and charge you more. It's not like the cheap
Speaker 1: stuff has like glue or seashells mixed in with it,
Speaker 1: you know. So those wheels you talked about, Um, lider
Speaker 1: weight wheels will account for about increase in speed if
Speaker 1: it's allowed in your league. Yep. You want your wheel
Speaker 1: base to be as far part of possible from what
Speaker 1: I understand, Yeah, totally, Like you don't want the wheels
Speaker 1: up in the center of the car. That'd be weird
Speaker 1: looking anyway, it would be plus Apparently it also takes
Speaker 1: more energy to steer it off of the rail. But
Speaker 1: I guess that doesn't apply anymore if you're rail racing,
Speaker 1: rail riding, Yeah, rail writing. Uh what else? I got
Speaker 1: nothing else? Man, you got nothing else? I got nothing else.
Speaker 1: I only have one more little thing. Um. And this
Speaker 1: is about the you know what, what obviously is going
Speaker 1: to happen in any competition in the United States. Parents
Speaker 1: are gonna get involved and they're gonna become big jerks. Um.
Speaker 1: It was the whole basis for that movie, I think.
Speaker 1: And I went to the boy Scouts site. I guess
Speaker 1: it was a Boy's Life magazine site. And there's a
Speaker 1: big problem now with like who made your pine with
Speaker 1: Derby car? And they said a big red flag is
Speaker 1: when mom or dad comes in holding the car and
Speaker 1: the kid isn't even holding it, and they'll always say
Speaker 1: give it to your kid and we'll deal with him.
Speaker 1: Um or guess you know girl scouts are doing now
Speaker 1: or her and um, let's get to the bottom of
Speaker 1: this and who actually built this thing? And while I
Speaker 1: do point out that they take them into the other
Speaker 1: room and see if they can break them, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they have to detail like every single thing they did.
Speaker 1: They to try to get around this because they do
Speaker 1: acknowledge that you know, these are like seven and eight
Speaker 1: year olds and you all that you can't use a
Speaker 1: band saw if you're seven or eight. Oh, I guess
Speaker 1: it's pretty obvious when a parent has had the lead
Speaker 1: on all this. Yeah, rather than taking you know, a
Speaker 1: supporting role. Yeah, I think you're supposed to. So that
Speaker 1: they just had different parents chime in on what they
Speaker 1: do and what they've done and what works in their leagues.
Speaker 1: And um they said a lot of times that they'll, um,
Speaker 1: the kid will design the car and then like mom
Speaker 1: or dad will cut the wood and then the kid
Speaker 1: will like assemble the wheels and stuff like that. Um,
Speaker 1: so you know, the kid plays a part in it,
Speaker 1: but the adult is doing like the dangerous stuff. Um
Speaker 1: some uh, some some places to have dad's divisions, so
Speaker 1: like the dad can just build his own car and
Speaker 1: raise another dad. Well, yeah, there's like whole racing leagues
Speaker 1: that are adult leagues technically not Pinewood Derby because Pinewood
Speaker 1: Derby's like boy Scouts only, um or Scouts only. But
Speaker 1: there's like non boy Scout affiliated adult racing leagues of
Speaker 1: this stuff. Yeaht apparently at the Pinewood Derby though, they'll
Speaker 1: also have dad racism just so you know, hey, you're
Speaker 1: you haven't matured to the point where you can just
Speaker 1: participate as a father, so you can raise your other
Speaker 1: dads if you really need you. That's pretty great. Uh.
Speaker 1: Some people have car building days where they all get
Speaker 1: together as a big group into it, which is kind
Speaker 1: of fun and that ensures that it's more level playing field.
Speaker 1: And then they this one this is my favorite one.
Speaker 1: Where is this? I don't think it said where this
Speaker 1: was this one? Boy Scout troop gives out awards and
Speaker 1: categories like you had originality, craftsmanship, finish. I think that's common.
Speaker 1: And then they'll give an award car most likely made
Speaker 1: by a parent, and so it's sort of a shame
Speaker 1: of public shaming. Yeah, humiliation, Yeah, but I think I
Speaker 1: would humiliate the kid too. What they what if they
Speaker 1: gave you, like a patch to you just earned your
Speaker 1: patch in public humiliation? Right, this just got a red
Speaker 1: face Scout on it. Yeah, I don't know. That seems
Speaker 1: like it would totally embarrass the kids. It's like rubbing
Speaker 1: your face and your poop. That's exactly what it's like.
Speaker 1: What else you got? I got nothing else? I got
Speaker 1: one more thing. So apparently, as far as scale goes,
Speaker 1: some of these Pinewood Derby cars get up to twenty
Speaker 1: miles an hour, and if you scaled it up to
Speaker 1: a normal sized car, that would be in the area
Speaker 1: of two hundred miles an hour. Yeah. Wow, I think
Speaker 1: so pretty neat pound for pound, they go pretty quick.
Speaker 1: So I guess if you're interested in the pine with Derby,
Speaker 1: go join the Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts or look
Speaker 1: for a just a recreational league in your town. Right
Speaker 1: kind of made me want to build one. Oh check,
Speaker 1: there's nothing stopping you. Yeah, well, actually me, because after
Speaker 1: about five minutes I was like, yeah, it's fun to
Speaker 1: read about though. Well, if you want to read more
Speaker 1: about Pineo Derby's you can type those words into the
Speaker 1: search bar how stuff works dot Com. You can also
Speaker 1: go onto Stuff you should Know dot com and find
Speaker 1: the podcast page for this episode, and it will bring
Speaker 1: up all sorts of cool links. Uh. And I said, uh,
Speaker 1: search bar in there somewhere, which means it's time for
Speaker 1: a listener mail. I'm gonna call this um alan Alda experience.
Speaker 1: That's the second alan all the appearance in this episode
Speaker 1: that you can't have enough alan Alda references. You know,
Speaker 1: the Onion went on a little tear where like alan
Speaker 1: Alda made an appearance and every single one of their
Speaker 1: slides really Yeah, Dear Charles, Joshua and Jerome, I want
Speaker 1: to share a quick story about the time I met
Speaker 1: alan Alda. I had wanted to meet him for most
Speaker 1: of my life. Like Chuck it, it was a goal.
Speaker 1: While other kids were watching Full How, I was watching
Speaker 1: Mash and Dragnet, so that was like me too. I
Speaker 1: never watch Full House, which is coming back, by the way,
Speaker 1: did you hear that? No with the original cast? They're
Speaker 1: remaking it? No? I think Uh, I think it's the
Speaker 1: original cast. Yeah, it's the original cast, but it may
Speaker 1: concentrate on the kids version of their house or something.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Who cares, right, I work as a
Speaker 1: producer for a radio morning show in in Pittsburgh. My
Speaker 1: station sponsor a series of talks in which Mr Alda
Speaker 1: was a part of and I got a chance to
Speaker 1: meet him at a dinner and um, shake his hand
Speaker 1: and hand a copy of the book to him of
Speaker 1: his book to sign. And when I went to do this,
Speaker 1: a quote gentleman end quote who I can best describe
Speaker 1: as a forty five year old child. He looks like
Speaker 1: he comes from old money cut in front of me.
Speaker 1: I know if that guy's pine would Derby car would
Speaker 1: be like he said, he think Dudley Moore and Arthur
Speaker 1: but without the charm. Uh. He looked like he had
Speaker 1: a scotch in his hand. He slurred the question was
Speaker 1: hot lips hula hand? Really hot? God? A bunch of
Speaker 1: this guy and all the handle the situation gracefully because
Speaker 1: he's Alan Alda. And after a few more embarrassing questions,
Speaker 1: a guy left and I got to introduce myself properly,
Speaker 1: and a little bit later I went up to him
Speaker 1: again to get a formal picture and he remembered my name.
Speaker 1: I was so excited I didn't get too um. I
Speaker 1: didn't write to brag or make you jealous, Chuck, but
Speaker 1: I've been trying to find a reason to write you
Speaker 1: guys for six years. The talkie gave was very compelling.
Speaker 1: He talked about living life to the fullest, about his
Speaker 1: near death experience on a mountaintop in Chile and how
Speaker 1: it changed his life. Uh. And then he recommends Alan
Speaker 1: alda memoir which I've also heard as great. So you
Speaker 1: can just look that up. I heard it's really good,
Speaker 1: but they're gonna read it. Yeah, this type of a
Speaker 1: few random words into the search bar and it should
Speaker 1: bring that up. I think Alan all the memoir. Um.
Speaker 1: So that's how I met him. And next on my
Speaker 1: life goal list just to meet Josh and Chuck. So
Speaker 1: that is from Andy Lindberg, who's a radio radio producer
Speaker 1: like Jerry. Yeah, in Pittsburgh, p A. They run into
Speaker 1: each other at the convention every once in a while.
Speaker 1: How do you stay awake when you guys are doing
Speaker 1: their stuff? I don't know. How do you stay awake? Hearty? Hard?
Speaker 1: Are getting anything else? Sick of radio producers making fun
Speaker 1: of us? If you want to get in touch with Chuck,
Speaker 1: me or Jerry or the three of us, or any
Speaker 1: combination thereof, you can tweet to us at s Y
Speaker 1: s K Podcast. You can join us on Facebook dot
Speaker 1: com slash stuff you Should Know. You can send us
Speaker 1: an email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff Works dot com, and,
Speaker 1: as always, join us at our home on the web,
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more on this
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com