Science and Math Approaches

Note to educators:

Our intent here is for students to experience the Lowriding Virtual Exhibition and accompanying educational activities. The goal is to heighten their sense of identity and community as they learn about this expression of Chicano and Chicana culture. As always, we encourage you to view these activities as suggestions and to incorporate your own materials, ideas, and approaches. Enjoy!

Target audience: High school students and adults

Introduction

In 1956, a Chicano named Ron Aguirre installed the first hydraulic system in a car — a  ’56 Chevrolet convertible. The hydraulic pumps that Aguirre used were military surplus from World War II fighter planes. This application of technology allowed for lifting and lowering of cars, as desired, and gave rise to lowriding — a form of cultural expression that emerged from working class Chicano communities. 

These activities suggested in this section consider some of the physical and mathematical principles that low riders employ to create these distinct cars.

“I’ve made cars walk behind me, turn in circles, or hop up so that all four tires are off the ground…there’s nothing that I haven’t been able to do with a car except make it turn a flip, and I’m working on that.”

Wille Trujillo, hydraulics specialist, Chamita, New Mexico (in Low and Slow, 1999)

Guiding Questions

• Which physical properties/principles does Trujillo employ to make his cars “hop and turn?”
• How does a mechanic alter a car so that it can rise up and down and even jump?
• How can students use vectors to predict how high the car will jump?
• In what ways are the principles behind hydraulic systems in low rider cars a part of students’ day-to-day lives?

Approaches and Discussion Prompts

• Present students with the above quote from Low and Slow
• Ask students to develop their own questions. 

Suggested Prompts

• What questions do you have about how low rider cars work after hearing this quote?
• What questions do you have about the mechanics of low rider cars?
• What other questions do you have about low rider cars?

• Review properties of liquids (vs. solids and gases) with students

Pascal’s principle

Pressure applied at any point on a confined fluid is transmitted undiminished throughout the fluid.

P=Pressure, F=Force, A= Area. P=F

                                                    A

o      Explain how the hydraulic system works and allows the car to move up and down and even jump.

·       Applying Pascal’s principle to students’ day-to-day lives

Discussion/Writing Prompts

o      How do you see Pascal’s principle at work in your day-to-day life?

o      Are there other hydraulic systems that are a part of the machines in your home, neighborhood, or city/town?

• Examine “bounce” in low rider cars by using vectors

Power = work (force (mass x acceleration) x distance)

                       time

Suggested closing discussion prompt

o      How are the mechanics of low rider cars related to the meaning that these cars have for the men and women who create them?

o      What is the relationship between technology, art, and expression in low rider cars? Can you think of other objects that illustrate this relationship?