研究汽车运动规律的学科。汽车的可能行驶状态，如直线、曲线、上下坡、等速或加减速运动等均属力学研究的内容。但汽车结构中有轮胎、悬架系等弹性部分，运动的自由度较多，而轮胎与地面接触处的附着和摩擦等机理尚未充分探明等，所以这一学科尚带有半经验的性质。
这就好比热力学定律，为引擎的使用打下了理论基础，但你不能从热力学定律一步跨越到发明汽车，这中间还要经历成千上万的步骤。
It's like we have laws of thermodynamics that underlie the use of engines, but you can't just go from the laws of thermodynamics to an automobile; there are a million steps along the way.
除非你在空气动力学实验室工作，否则没有人知道汽车在空气的阻力下行驶时，75英里的时速比65英里要多消耗多少能量，事实是这个差距非常大。
Unless you work in an aerodynamic lab, you don't understand how much more energy it takes to push a car through the air at 75 MPH than at 65 MPH, but it's huge.
一些汽车和卡车司机紧随大型卡车之后行驶，利用空气动力学作用减少自身的燃油消耗，但是这种做法是相当危险的。
Some car and lorry drivers try to exploit this aerodynamic effect by tailgating big trucks to reduce their own fuel consumption. But it is exceedingly dangerous.
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