I Turn a Water Gun Into a Shock Absorber and Explain Shocks, Springs, Suspension like Never Before

The location of the holes. That's the only difference between a water gun and a shock absorber. Although they do very different things the squirt gun and the shock absorber work on the exact same operating principle

This is the case because both water and oil are incompressible liquids and
there are several factors at play here. The first one is of course the outlet hole or the nozzle. It is a restriction to flow and to overcome this restriction we must apply a force. The smaller the nozzle the greater the force required to push water through it.

The second thing we must overcome is the internal friction or the viscous forces within the water. The greater the amount of water we are trying to push within the same period of time the greater the internal friction both between the molecules of the water and between the water and the walls of the pipe. The greater the friction the greater the force needed to overcome it

And finally, we have to deal with increasing pressure. Water is an incompressible fluid which means that when we try to compress it its volume doesn’t change significantly but its pressure still increases and the greater the amount of water we are trying to move through the small nozzle the more the pressure of the water behind the nozzle increases. As this pressure increases it acts against the force of our hand so we must keep increasing our force exponentially if we want to increase the amount of water coming out

Now everything we just described works absolutely the same for a shock absorber the only difference is that instead of expelling the liquid outside we move it from one side of the piston to the other. And instead of our hand creating the force we have bumps or other road imperfections. So the greater the bump and the faster we approach it the greater the force acting on the shock absorber. Of course, most vehicles are heavier than humans and are capable of moving at much greater speeds which is why they’re capable of producing much greater forces.

This is why we run oil instead of water inside vehicular shocks. Oil is incompressible just like water so the same physics principles apply but oil is much more viscous in other words it has a much greater internal friction and a greater resistance to flow which is why we require a substantially increased force to move it from one side of the piston to the other. We can also manipulate other parameters of a shock absorber to make it capable of absorbing greater forces and more suitable for a particular application. For example, off-road applications tend to face great forces due to the very irregular terrain. This is why off-road shocks will usually have a greater stroke or the maximum top-to-bottom piston distance compared to shocks for regular road-going vehicles. A greater force acting on the shocks will push the piston further into the shock body. The greater the distance the piston can travel the greater the maximum force that the shock absorber can handle before bottoming out.

A spring can compress when faced with a force so it can also absorb all kinds of forces by compressing more for greater forces and less for smaller ones….well yes that is technically true but a spring on its own is still kinda useless. Number one 1. Depending on the direction of how the force is applied and released the spring can easily bend side to side and in all sorts of funky ways. The shock anchors the spring and ensures that it can only move up and down.

The other problem is that when springs release after being compressed they tend to oscillate. Or bounce up and down until it returns to its equilibrium or stable position. Of course, the only vehicle oscillations comfortable for vehicle occupants are the ones produced by them with all external oscillations of the vehicle being undesirable. And it is precisely these spring oscillations that are also absorbed by the shock absorber. So as you can see the the shock absorber and the spring make a perfect team. The shock absorber prevents the spring from moving side to side and from oscillating whereas the spring prevents the shock absorber piston from being stuck at the bottom of the shock body.

But here’s one more, less evident problem, that we haven’t discussed and that is cavitation the greatest enemy of all shock absorbers. Cavitation can be best described as the appearance of air bubbles inside the oil. These bubbles will usually form during rapid piston movement and they can occur both during suspension compression and suspension extension.

A special thank you to my patrons:
Daniel
Pepe
Brian Alvarez
Peter Della Flora
Dave Westwood
Joe C
Zwoa Meda Beda
Toma Marini
Cole Philips

#d4a #suspension #shocks

[Miwna]

I work at a company that manufactures suspension for almost anything from snowmobiles and boat seats to prototype racing like F1 and WEC. This was a really good explanation! My goto basic explanation about what a shock absorber actually does is that it converts kinetic energy into heat. However, when it comes to actually setting up the suspension for a vehicle, the rabbit hole is very deep. How do you want it to handle slow vs fast bumps. Do you want harder or softer compression and/or rebound? Do you want a regressive or progressive damping? Top out springs, bump rubbers, valves with or without adjustments and much more. There are so many variables to consider. You can go well beyond university levels of knowledge and still not know everything.

[MrMaselko]

D4A is slowly becoming an unhinged version of Technology Connections and I'm not complaining.

[stasisthebest]

The part about the presence of the air and its pressure importance was... Shocking

[watersheep]

0:01 An artificial squirt gun implies the existence of a natural squirt gun ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[Terryb]

I'm fascinated at the way you can help me understand things that for over 50 years I thought I already did. What a talent you have, thank you.

[redwarrior]

Im a mechanic and i change shocks for a living lets say. I know what they do and how they work but man your explanations are so good that it feels like im learning something new! Good job mate!

[KensWorldRestorations]

Without a doubt one of the greatest videos on YouTube. I have a 1984 Yamaha Virago that I restored to like-new and back in those days, the top of the front forks have an air tube with a fill valve. I have yet to meet anyone who knew anything about it since most never used it. Once mine was fully restored (4 small, hard-to-find o-rings being the typical culprit) I experimented with different amounts of air pressure. The service manual has little guidance but with as little as 5psi in the void, the ride difference was substantial. Today, when I ride it, I not only check engine oil, tire pressure, etc., I also make sure there is air in the front forks. Now that I know about the effects of cavitation, I’m even more cognizant of the need to keep these forks filled with air. Thanks for the incredible learning experience!!

[guillaumer.r]

I'm a french engineering school student. With this video, I understand better physics and learn english in the same time. Your explanations are really simple and steered well. It helps a lot, thank you !

[wido]

I love the "student answering teacher during exam" face at 18:34

[WhatchaPLAYS]

NGL I was not expecting at all that naughty joke! Made me LOL out loud!
Keep being my favorite youtuber!

[BandaMapper]

You singlehandedly made your own suspension aint no better way to explain this, good info and easy to understand

[vrnlgmt]

You have no idea how much I thank you and appreciate you for this video. It is extremely detailed from start to finish, and I don't think you left a point untouched. Also, I prefer these long and comprehensive videos over this silly trend of shorts and reels. It was very useful.

[fridaycaliforniaa]

It's also good to notice that the fluid (oil) in the shock absorbers warms up everytime you take a bump, because of the friction and forces applied. If you try to do some serious offroading or track days with a car that only has stock shock absorbers, you run the risk of having some overheating shock absorbers and burnt oil inside them, that will never return to its initial characteristics. I've seen guys trying stock cars on tracks many times and they got their shock absorbers basically having no effect because they enjoyed climbing the kerbs in every turn, the oil inside became basically hot pee...

[wahidtrynaheghugh]

For anyone who is confused about how an incompressible fluid can have a higher or lower pressure, it doesn’t. The things around it that are compressible are expanding/compressing. So if your submarine tells you the water pressure around you is 3, 000 psi, it’s not really, the submarine is getting squished. Likewise in the squirt gun, the tube of water is expanding under pressure, exerting force back on the water and creating pressure.

[aaronklein]

Dude you should do a part 2 where you add and adjust little check valves and stuff to show how you can adjust bound and rebound settings and what all is going on inside when you do that. Loved this one a lot.

[terrypitt-brooke]

Awesome, as usual! But I had one quibble: contrary to their name, shock absorbers don't absorb shock--the springs do that. Though they may help prevent springs from bottoming out, the primary purpose of the shocks is to prevent the oscillation. Also I wish when discussing cavitation, you had circled back to water and why water is not used as a fluid in shocks--it's very prone to cavitation. But I was cheering like anything when you wrapped up by saying "DO try this at home"!! Thanks again!

[claudiopiccoliromera]

From a mathematical standpoint, a suspension works as a LRC electronic circuit. The shock acts as an inductor, opposing rate-of-change (speed) motion, the suspension coil acts as a capacitor, storing energy, while the friction on the whole system works as a resistor. When the wheel hits a bump, the response graph looks exactly like a LRC voltage graph.

[drrgfjf]

There is no better explanation than this. Thank you so much!

[logic.and.reasoning]

I haven't started watching yet... I was a shock absorber and suspension specialist for 30+ years, plus that's after I was a kid in my dads workshop since age 7. Our family business was primarily a shock absorber reconditioning business. We also built custom suspension, steering and brake components, and eventually chassis repairs, mods, and full replacement items. In the mid eighties in Australia, cash was around... Rally cars, drags, ... people had toys. I have personally hand built the "Big Wing" Batmobile chassis and suspension for Warner Brothers for the Flintstones car, partly my designs. Other things from 1940s fighter plane parts replicated or custom made. 1912 cars worth millions., I hand crafted parts for.
I would love to talk to you...
But first, I better watch the video... delete half my comment, and start again. Lol.
Love your work mate 😊

[rockardbiker]

Funnier than any current mainstream comedian thank you.