90 million rotations and going strong!
 

Hi All,

I was driving home yesterday (1 hour commute) and was thinking about how many times my rotors are spinning, and then I go to thinking about how many times they have rotated in total, and I'm estimating somewhere around 90 MILLION times.

Here's the math, feel free to call me out on it (yes, I rounded off and used some assumptions)...

Initial data:
Total miles on car = 45,000
Average MPH = 30 (this is probably too high, but makes for easy math)
Average RPM = 3,000 (output shaft RPM, not rotor RPM) - I know we often are driving well above that, but think of all the time spent at stop lights, in traffic, etc. idling at ~1,000 RPM

Conversions:
45,000 miles / 30 mph = 1,500 total hours
3,000RPM * 60 = 180,000 RPH (rotations per hour)

1,500 total hours * 180,000 rotations per hour = 270,000,000 lifetime output shaft rotations

3 output shaft RPM = 1 rotor RPM

therefore, 270,000,000 / 3 = 90,000,000 rotor rotations (each rotor!)

Pretty amazing when you think about it that way...

Simply amazing.

It is really rather amazing, and if anyone hasn't watched the videos from Mazda on what goes into making these engines it's worth taking a look at:
How To Make a Rotary Engine

That's good...

Cool video. I hadn't seen that one yet.