# Could pressing the brakes on a car in mid-air affect its pitch rotation? - Tags: newtonian-mechanics, rotational-dynamics - Score: 41 - Views: 7,353 - Answers: 4 - Asked by: Entangled Superposition (513 rep) - Asked on: Oct 31, 2022 - Last active: Apr 3, 2025 - License: CC BY-SA 4.0 --- ## Question In a racing video game series named Trackmania, there is a game mechanic where when you hit a jump and the car is in mid-air, you can stop the car from pitching downward by tapping on the brakes. I am curious if this mechanic has some basis in real physics. What would happen if a car were pitching nose down while in the air, and you hit the brakes thus stopping the rotating wheels. Would that affect the car's pitch, and if so, how? --- ## Accepted Answer — Score: 61 - By: Polynomial (878 rep) - Answered on: Oct 31, 2022 It will affect pitch, but not the way it works in the game. In the game, braking while in the air stops your pitch axis rotation. In real life, it does something completely different. The wheels have angular momentum. When the wheels are slowed, this angular momentum must be conserved. This results in a transfer of angular momentum from the wheel to the vehicl