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    Question ID:   23483         Current Version: 1
Question: While in a car when it is raining, why does the windshield get wetter when you are driving than when you stop (like at a stoplight)?
Category: Science > Physics
Keywords: amount, move, stop, catch, rain, raindrop, wetter, body, car, windshield
Type: why
Rating:(0 ratings)    Views: 78    Discussions: 0   In Watch Lists: 1  

 
    Answer:
You can imagine how, when moving along a horizontal surface, you will pass more road signs than if you are standing still. The faster you travel, the more road signs you will pass (until a friendly policeman stops you, that is). With the raindrops, your body or a car at rest will encounter a given number of drops. Move your body or the car horizontally through a rainstorm and you will encounter more drops, thereby making yourself wetter. There is naturally a variety of precipitation speeds in a storm, that is, in a storm the rains falls at different rates. You therefore might experience less "wetting" than you might expect when traveling, just because the storm is made that way. But, given a theoretical "set-speed" storm, the faster you move through the storm the more raindrops you will encounter.

An interesting footnote is, that, above a given speed, you might actually become LESS wet, as the wind and vacuum created by your super-fast travel might cause less drops to actually be able to contact your car/plane/jet surface.

Sources:

[1] Rickru, "Amount of rain hitting the windshield", Online posting. NEWTON BBS Ask a Scientist.

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