Quote:
Originally Posted by HughGJohnson
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure they measure downforce.
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Strain gauges measure a movement not a force as that's what strain is but you can deduce the force from the size of the movement and I am sure you are right and they use them to measure downforce. What non engineers tend to forget is that all structures without exception move under load. If they didn't move at all there would be no restoring force and therefore no load could be carried. So from wings on F1 cars, dining room tables, gothic arches in cathedrals or electricity transmission towers they all move, bend, twist etc under load, it's how the world works.
I have followed the discussions on the flexing Red Bull wing desperately trying not to jump in and point out this rather pedantic point but hey in the end you gotta do what you gotta do.
