On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:50:08 -0500, cc wrote:

> I'm new to ng posting, so let me know if i screw something up.  :)
> 
> Long background description of the project.  If interested read it :)
> otherwise I have a math question at the bottom.
> 
> I've been working on a system for scripting car-motion.  It's
> geometry-based.  ... Based on the idea that when turning, the car will
> revolve around some point which is located at the intersection of where
> the normals (if extended) of all four wheels interrsect.  

	If I were actually designing a simulation of car motion for car company
and wanted to earn my keep I would certainly use as complex an approach
as this so I could determine lateral strain on struts and tires. 

	However just to povray it ... 

> ************************************************************************
> 
> In the spirit of clean mathematical models, I really want to do each
> motion segment in one step using calculus.

...

> If mathematica can't do it, is that a bad sign?  I threw a few things
> into the online mathematica integrator. http://integrals.wolfram.com/
> Unfortunately it wasn't able to do them.
> 
> Help?  Suggestions?   Is there a way to approximate these integrals w/o
> iteration?

	... is this not a bit on the side of overkill? Assume the front tires
turn exactly in sync and the rear wheels do not affect the resultant
motion and the problem is down to rather simple analytic geometry. 

	I don't mean to try to talk you out of an interesting problem but I
doubt anything you are talking about is going to improve the realism of
the motion in the least.

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