Titanium Sandboard: How Fast Will It Go?

This is a regular snowboard and if you look at the bottom you will notice it's very smooth and that it’s made of a plastic material. This specific material is a thermoplastic called p-tex. And while it’s pretty rigid it was built for snow which has very unique properties.

Snow or ice, unlike many other solids, is slippery. This slipperiness can be measured as a coefficient of friction and ice has a coefficient of friction of 0.03… with 0.0 being something closer to magnetic levitation… so ice is pretty dang slippery!

However, if we were to replace ice with a different solid, let's say silicon dioxide or sand we don’t get quite the same result. We have a lot of friction in this scenario which is why usually sand boarding happens at much slower speeds even with steep declines.

So for today's experiment, I wanted to see how we could reduce friction and get a sand board to the fastest possible speed! And the first step in this equation is to mention our amazing sponsor for this video…Toyota! Just like the Toyota Mirai design, our smooth board is very intentional for our design, just like their smooth undercarriage.

We will be taking the Toyota Mirai up to the sand dunes of Pismo beach for today's experiment. This car is Toyota's second generation FCEV which stands for fuel cell electric vehicle and is powered by hydrogen! Also, this second generation has a super sporty vibe that is underpinned by the GA-L platform also used by the Lexus LS and Lexus LC. This improves both handling and design.

Alright so here’s how we're going to do this, we're going to take this snowboard and cover the P-Tex plastic with a material that is super hard which should create a much lower coefficient of friction than our plastic… However, we also want this material to be light enough that we don't just stand in place… and this miracle material would be a super thin sheet of titanium. This metal is as strong as steel but 45% lighter in weight.

Also to better understand if this titanium sheet is really working we are going to compare the speeds of the same board with and without the metal to see if our experiment is really working.

Also, I want to note that the vehicle we’re taking up the sand dunes also has taken advantage of the concept of reducing friction. Because the undercarriage of the car doesn’t house any pipes carrying exhaust or hot gas away from the engine the whole undercarriage is one flat surface. This helps reduce friction, improving the aerodynamics of the vehicle which increases fuel efficiency

So here’s what we learned!

By reducing friction under the board we were able to shave off a considerable amount of time in the straight downhill descent. This basically equated to more fun and an overall more exhilarating experience.

Big shout out to Toyota for sponsoring this video! Also, I want to share again how much I love the Mirai, this vehicle is such an impressive mashup of eco-friendly driving, tech, and style. The inside feels super luxurious, the sound system is fantastic and all the while literally only producing water as a by-product. I’m totally a fan of how much engineering, design effort, and technology went into this vehicle.

Thanks again to Toyota and we’ll see you soon!

Learn more about the Toyota Mirai: https://toyota.us/3UbITuq