1.
Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
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Abington Township is a township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States, adjacent to Philadelphias northern fringe. The population was 55,310 as of the 2010 census, the population density is 3603.3 per square mile, making it the second most densely populated township in Montgomery County. Abington Township is one of Montgomery Countys oldest communities, dating back to before 1700 and it is home to some of the countys oldest transportation routes, industries and churches. Many of these older business and transportation centers were the forerunners of modern Abington, Abington contains the Willow Grove Park Mall, several small businesses, and a few of Montgomery Countys largest employers. The land that comprises Abington today was purchased from the native Lenape by William Penn during the 1680s, by the next decade, a handful of European settlers built and lived in Hill Township, at the crossroads of Susquehanna Street Road and Old York Road. After brief times under other names, the township incorporated as Abington in 1704, the names origin is not known. A local 1734 census counted 42 resident landowners, during the American Revolutionary War, there was a small battle that took place at Edge Hill. Some institutions have been in Abington for most of its existence, the cornerstone of the original Abington Friends School, in operation since before Abingtons incorporation, is used in todays school building. The Abington Presbyterian Church opened in the years of the township. The railroad reached the township in 1855, with the first station building erected in 1873 on the site of todays Noble Station, Abington Senior High School and Fox Chase Farm are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has an area of 15.5 square miles. Their primary importance, aside from community identity, is the postal system, additionally, some portions of some of these subdivisions, including Glenside, Huntingdon Valley, North Hills, Willow Grove, and Elkins Park, are actually in neighboring townships. The civic associations work together on Traffic Summits in even years and these Summits focus on eliminating traffic congestion that interferes with the growth of businesses in the Township. As of the 2010 census, the township was 79. 7% White,12. 4% Black or African American,0. 1% Native American,4. 9% Asian,3. 2% of the population were of Hispanic or Latino ancestry. As of 2008, the U. S. Census Bureau estimated there were 55,234 people,21,252 occupied households, the population density was 3,563 people per square mile. The racial makeup of the township was 80% White, 12% Black, 3% Asian, a fraction of a percent Pacific Islander, 1% from other races, Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3% of the population. 26% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.56 and the average family size was 3.11. In the township the population was out, with 22% under the age of 18, 9% from 18 to 24, 25% from 25 to 44, 29% from 45 to 64
2.
West Goshen Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania
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West Goshen Township is a township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 21,866 at the 2010 census, in 2013, Money Magazine voted West Goshen as the 10th best place to live in America. The headquarters for QVC is in West Goshen Township, though its address is in West Chester, West Goshen Township is also where the headquarters for A. Duie Pyle Trucking, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Lasko Industries are located. There are more than 465 businesses which call West Goshen Township home, the lands of Goshen were purchased in 1681 from William Penn as part of the Welsh tract of Westtown. By 1704, Goshen and Westtown had become separate townships, in 1788, the formation of the Borough of West Chester reduced the size of Goshen. Finally, in 1817, the Township divided into East and West Goshen Townships, at the time of the 1820 census, West Goshens population numbered 757. West Goshen was primarily a community in its early history. Before long, many different businesses began to appear, including several women-owned enterprises, trades such as cabinet-making, tailoring, weaving, clock-making, and wool-making characterized the area. The completion of railroads in the 1830s and 1850s facilitated the delivery of goods and services to the Township, by 1930, West Goshens population had risen to 1,958. The farming community had grown into a suburban neighborhood. As of the 2010 census, the township was 88. 8% White,3. 7% Black or African American,0. 2% Native American,4. 7% Asian,3. 7% of the population were of Hispanic or Latino ancestry. As of the census of 2000, there were 20,495 people,7,554 households, the population density was 1,719.6 people per square mile. There were 7,703 housing units at a density of 646. 3/sq mi. The racial makeup of the township was 90. 51% White,4. 25% African American,0. 04% Native American,3. 78% Asian,0. 01% Pacific Islander,0. 65% from other races, and 0. 76% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2. 00% of the population,21. 0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6. 4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.68 and the family size was 3.18. In the township the population was out, with 26. 3% under the age of 18,6. 9% from 18 to 24,32. 2% from 25 to 44,23. 8% from 45 to 64. The median age was 37 years, for every 100 females there were 97.2 males
3.
Drag racing
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Drag racing is a type of motor racing in which automobiles or motorcycles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line. Electronic timing and speed sensing systems have used to record race results since the 1960s. This article covers the legal sport, before each race, each driver is allowed to perform a burnout, which heats the driving tires and lays rubber down at the beginning of the track, improving traction. Each driver then lines up at the starting line, current NHRA trees, for example, feature one blue light, then three amber, one green, and one red. When the first light beam is broken by a front tire, the vehicle is pre-staged. When the second beam is broken, the vehicle is staged. Vehicles may then leave the beam, but must remain in the stage beam until the race starts. Once one competitor is staged, their opponent has a set amount of time to stage or they will be disqualified, indicated by a red light on the tree. Otherwise, once both drivers are staged, the system chooses a short delay at random, then starts the race, the light sequence at this point varies slightly. For example, in NHRA Professional classes, three amber lights on the tree flash simultaneously, followed 0.4 seconds later by a green light. In NHRA Sportsman classes, the amber lights illuminate in sequence from top to bottom,0.5 seconds apart, if a vehicle leaves the start line before the green light illuminates, the red light for that lane illuminates instead, and the driver is disqualified. As a red light infraction is only assessed to the driver with the worse infraction, even if both drivers leave early, the green light is automatically lit for the driver that left last, and they still may win the pass. Several measurements are taken for each race, reaction time, elapsed time, reaction time is the period from the green light illuminating to the vehicle leaving the starting line. Elapsed time is the period from the leaving the starting line to crossing the finish line. Speed is measured through a speed trap covering the final 66 feet to the finish line, except where a breakout rule is in place, the winner is the first vehicle to cross the finish line, and therefore the driver with the lowest combined reaction time and elapsed time. Because these times are measured separately, a driver with an elapsed time can actually win if that drivers advantage in reaction time exceeds the elapsed time difference. In heads-up racing, this is known as a holeshot win, in categories where a breakout rule is in effect, if a competitor is faster than his or her predetermined time, that competitor loses. If both competitors are faster than their predetermined times, the competitor who breaks out by less time wins, regardless, a red light foul is worse than a breakout, except in Junior Dragster where exceeding the absolute limit is a cause for disqualification
4.
National Hot Rod Association
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The National Hot Rod Association is a drag racing governing body, which sets rules in drag racing and hosts events all over the United States and Canada. With over 40,000 drivers in its rosters, the NHRA claims to be the largest motorsports sanctioning body in the world, the association was founded by Wally Parks in 1951 in California to provide a governing body to organize and promote the sport of drag racing. The first nationwide NHRA sponsored event was held in 1955, in Great Bend, Nationals are now held at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis in Clermont, Indiana and are officially called the U. S. Nationals. Winners of national events are awarded a statue in honor of founder Wally Parks. The trophy is referred to by its nickname, a “Wally”. The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series is the Top Division of the NHRA and it consists of five professional classes, Top Fuel Dragster Funny Car Pro Stock Pro Stock Motorcycle Pro Modified List of NHRA champions There are more than a dozen Sportsman Classes. All classes except Snowmobile and some Sportsman Motorcycle classes are regularly contested at NHRA National Events, NHRA promotes mainly the Professional Classes at National Events, however, the majority of its participants are Sportsman Racers. Sportsman Class Racers must be dues-paying members of NHRA before they are allowed to enter, included in these sportsman events are the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, the Summit Racing Equipment Racing Series and the NHRA Jr. The NHRA Sportsman Drag Racing Series originally consisted of seven divisions, Northeast, Southeast, North Central, South Central, West Central, Northwest and Pacific. Starting in 2012, the Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car classes compete in four regions, East, North Central, Central, Sportsman racers with multiple championships Sportsman racers who have won multiple world championships, with the date of their most recent championship. The five point safety harness is required for all vehicles and it holds the driver secure in the seat, and is equipped with a quick release latch which can be released in less than a second should the driver need to leave the car due to fire or explosions. Fire suits are required for all drivers in the alcohol and nitromethane fuel classes and these suits are full body coveralls and made with seven layers of Nomex fabric, which makes them resistant to fire. The required suit includes Nomex gloves, foot socks, and head sock, another NASCAR transplant, which was brought into use after the death of Fireball Roberts, was the fuel cell. This bladder is placed into the tanks of non-nitromethane fueled vehicles to prevent fuel leaks. Third is the use of the HANS device and this device limits the movement of the head and neck in the event of an impact. Fourth is the shield that must be placed behind the head of all Dragsters. This is to prevent any debris from entering the cockpit and becoming a hazard to the driver after the death of Top Fuel racer Darrell Russell. Fifth is the fire extinguishing system that are required
5.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
6.
Nitromethane
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Nitromethane is an organic compound with the chemical formula CH 3NO2. It is the simplest organic nitro compound and it is a polar liquid commonly used as a solvent in a variety of industrial applications such as in extractions, as a reaction medium, and as a cleaning solvent. As an intermediate in synthesis, it is used widely in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, explosives, fibers. Nitromethane is used as a fuel in various motorsports and hobbies, top Fuel drag racing and miniature internal combustion engines in radio control, control line and free flight model aircraft. Nitromethane is produced industrially by treating propane with nitric acid at 350–450 °C and this exothermic reaction produces the four industrially significant nitroalkanes, nitromethane, nitroethane, 1-nitropropane, and 2-nitropropane. The reaction involves free radicals, including the alkoxyl radicals of the type CH3CH2CH2O and these alkoxy radicals are susceptible to C—C fragmentation reactions, which explains the formation of a mixture of products. It can be prepared in other methods that are of instructional value and it is also used most effectively as a solvent or dissolving agent for acrylate monomers, such as cyanoacrylates. Nitromethane is a relatively acidic carbon acid and it has a pKa of 17.2 in DMSO solution. This value indicates an aqueous pKa of about 11, protonation of the conjugate base O2NCH2-, which is nearly isosteric with nitrate, occurs initially at oxygen. In organic synthesis nitromethane is employed as a one building block. Its acidity allows it to undergo deprotonation, enabling condensation reactions analogous to those of carbonyl compounds, thus, under base catalysis, nitromethane adds to aldehydes in 1, 2-addition in the nitroaldol reaction. Some important derivatives include the pesticides chloropicrin, beta-nitrostyrene, and trisnitromethane, reduction of the latter gives trisaminomethane, 3CNH2, better known as tris, a widely used buffer. In more specialized organic synthesis, nitromethane serves as a Michael donor, adding to α, β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds via 1, nitromethane is used by hobbyists as a fuel in motor racing, particularly drag racing, as well as for radio-controlled models. In this context, nitromethane is commonly referred to as nitro, the oxygen content of nitromethane enables it to burn with much less atmospheric oxygen. 4 CH3NO2 +3 O2 →4 CO2 +6 H2O +2 N2 The amount of air required to burn 1 kg of gasoline is 14.7 kg, but only 1.7 kg of air is required for 1 kg of nitromethane. Since an engines cylinder can only contain an amount of air on each stroke,8.7 times more nitromethane than gasoline can be burned in one stroke. Nitromethane, however, has a specific energy, gasoline provides about 42–44 MJ/kg. This analysis indicates that nitromethane generates about 2.3 times the power of gasoline combined with a given amount of oxygen
7.
Supercharger
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A supercharger is an air compressor that increases the pressure or density of air supplied to an internal combustion engine. This gives each intake cycle of the more oxygen, letting it burn more fuel and do more work. Power for the supercharger can be provided mechanically by means of a belt, gear, shaft, when power is provided by a turbine powered by exhaust gas, a supercharger is known as a turbosupercharger – typically referred to simply as a turbocharger or just turbo. Common usage restricts the term supercharger to mechanically driven units, in 1848 or 1849 G. Jones of Birmingham, England brought out a Roots-style compressor. The worlds first functional, actually tested engine supercharger was made by Dugald Clerk, gottlieb Daimler received a German patent for supercharging an internal combustion engine in 1885. Louis Renault patented a centrifugal supercharger in France in 1902, an early supercharged race car was built by Lee Chadwick of Pottstown, Pennsylvania in 1908 which reportedly reached a speed of 100 mph. The worlds first series-produced cars with superchargers were Mercedes 6/25/40 hp, both models were introduced in 1921 and had Roots superchargers. They were distinguished as Kompressor models, the origin of the Mercedes-Benz badging which continues today, on March 24,1878 Heinrich Krigar of Germany obtained patent #4121, patenting the first ever screw-type compressor. Later that same year on August 16 he obtained patent #7116 after modifying and improving his original designs and his designs show a two-lobe rotor assembly with each rotor having the same shape as the other. Although the design resembled the Roots style compressor, the screws were clearly shown with 180 degrees of twist along their length, unfortunately, the technology of the time was not sufficient to produce such a unit, and Heinrich made no further progress with the screw compressor. Nearly half a century later, in 1935, Alf Lysholm and he also patented the method for machining the compressor rotors. There are two types of superchargers defined according to the method of gas transfer, positive displacement. Positive displacement blowers and compressors deliver an almost constant level of pressure increase at all engine speeds, dynamic compressors do not deliver pressure at low speeds, above a threshold speed, pressure increases with engine speed. Positive-displacement pumps deliver a nearly fixed volume of air per revolution at all speeds, Roots superchargers are external compression only. External compression refers to pumps that transfer air at ambient pressure into the engine, if the engine is running under boost conditions, the pressure in the intake manifold is higher than that coming from the supercharger. That causes a backflow from the engine into the supercharger until the two reach equilibrium and it is the backflow that actually compresses the incoming gas. This is an inefficient process and the factor in the lack of efficiency of Roots superchargers when used at high boost levels. The lower the boost level the smaller is this loss, and Roots blowers are very efficient at moving air at low pressure differentials, all the other types have some degree of internal compression
8.
Don Nicholson
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Don Nicholson was an American drag racer from Georgia. He raced in the 1960s and 70s when there were few national events, the National Hot Rod Association estimates he won 90 percent of his match races. As of 2002, he held the record for the most number of categories in which he reached a final round, Funny Car, Pro Stock, Super Stock, Competition Eliminator, Stock, Nicholson was born at Halltown, Missouri but was raised at Pasadena, California. While in high school, he joined the United States Navy which wiped out his many speeding tickets, Nicholson began racing in jalopies on oval tracks in the late 1940s before moving to the dry lakes at the Bonneville and El Mirage. He was already an experienced driver when drag strips began opening in Southern California, during the 1950s, Nicholson was a manager at Service Chevrolet. Nicholson got his nickname Dyno Don by being the first person to be trained on Services dynamometer, in 1961, Nally Chevrolet lured Nicholson to move his family to Georgia by giving him his own dyno shop and race car. Nicholson became nationally known to racing fans when he won the Stock class at NHRAs first Winternationals in 1961 with a 12-second pass. The win helped his business in Southern California, and gave him access to factory developed Chevrolet vehicles and he repeated as the 1962 Winternationals winner. He received lucrative offers from promoters in the Southeastern United States, Chevrolet and the other American car manufacturers decided to drop their factory backing in 1963 and his vehicle became uncompetitive. He switched to a Mercury Comet for 1964 in the A/Factory Experimental division and he won over 90 percent of match races he entered that year. That year he made the first 10-second pass in a doorslammer, in 1965, Dodge and Plymouth teams moved their front and rear wheels forward, giving them greater traction. These new Funny Cars were not allowed in NHRA meets, Ford disallowed their factory-supported Ford and Mercury teams competing against these new Mopar Funny Cars. Nicholson was concerned about losing his match racing income since his car was outclassed and that August, he converted his car to a Funny Car, adding nitromethane fuel, switching to fuel injection, and changing the wheelbase. Several weeks later he defeated the Ramcharger Dodge, the top Mopar entry, Mercury commissioned a new tube chassis Comet for 1966. The Logghe Bros. -built car featured a one piece flip-top body, Nicholsons car, dubbed Eliminator I, was rarely defeated that season. It clocked the first 7-second e. t. in Funny Car at Michigan in the half of 1966. The only driver capable of defeating Eliminator I was Nicholsons teammate Eddie Schartman, Nicholson was so dominant, critics predicted the demise of the new Funny Car craze. As he competed in his 7.3 second e. t, cougar in 1968, Nicholson was becoming concerned about engine fires caused by blower explosions
