Why Train Wheels Have a Slant | Hindi |
Channel: Arvind Gupta
Date: 21/01/2015

Have you ever wondered why the train wheels stay on the track even when they encounter a curved path. There are no handles in an engine. This is because of  a unique conical or slanted design of the wheels with a angle of about 3 degrees. Let’s understand it in this activity.

We need couple of conical cups and flat cups/bottles which we will join like the train wheels. We shall than roll them and see what happens.

Now as you see when the wheels are rolling on the track even a slight tilt of the wheels can take them off the track. When the track tilts the outer part of the track needs to travel larger distance. If we don’t so that the wheels will slip. This is accomplished in cars/trucks by means of a differential. In trains the slanting shape of the wheel mechanism to bring the wheels back on the track on a curve. This mechanism makes the wheel on the outer part of the curve travel larger distance as it has larger diameter at the point where it touches the track as compared to the the inner wheel.

So which wheel do you think is best for the trains. Not straight ones but conical ones and this one does the job. This work was supported by IUCAA and Tata Trust. This film was made by Ashok Rupner TATA Trust: Education is one of the key focus areas for Tata Trusts, aiming towards enabling access of quality education to the underprivileged population in India. To facilitate quality in teaching and learning of Science education through workshops, capacity building and resource creation, Tata Trusts have been supporting Muktangan Vigyan Shodhika (MVS), IUCAA's Children’s Science Centre, since inception. To know more about other initiatives of Tata Trusts, please visit www.tatatrusts.org