What is Traction control and why is it used ?

We all heard various technical jargons like Traction control , ABS etc when we talk about cars and that too these systems are now effectively used in cars we drive today . Now am sure generally people have no clue what these system does and when it actually works.let me make it simple for all ...

Let's talk about Traction Control today , i will make it as simple as possible.

How many times you started your engine in morning and thought of racing away by the signal .Well result is a big screechy sound due to wheel spin of your car .Why the wheel spins?

Lets understand this part first.
when we press on gas roughly we try to get the maximum power of the engine and the whole torque(power) is applied to one of the wheel set depending on car(front/back/both wheels).Due to such high acceleration one set of wheel tried to move faster then the other set.This leads to a spin of wheel set and believe me this also reduces your acceleration and burns the tire.
So now we come across a technology which will avoid such spin and that's we call as "Traction control". These are electronic device which keeps a check on the actual speed of the car and the rotation of the tire.

For eg if your are driving back wheel drive car as in case of f1 , the sensor for determining the car speed are kept in front wheels . Sensors are also present in back wheels to determine the speed of rotation of tires.

In this case if the "traction control " notices that the back wheels are rotating faster then front wheels (which provides actual speed of car), it retards the rotation of back wheels by one of these mediums:
1) Cut the fuel supply for engine
2) Apply brakes on back tyres

There are more advanced techniques to cut the rotation .

So in this way the rotation of the tires are controlled which helps to prevent slip and the tires remains in ground rather then spinning like a "jack Ass" .

So next time you are racing in streets or in circuits , make sure of one thing "never press on gas paddle completely" to avoid spinning , this will give you much better acceleration .