why does every car's steering wheel seem to turn one and a half rotations in either direction from neutral
it's always one and a half, never anything else
this is a serious question by the way, in case anyone actually knows the answer please let me know
@Felthry My guess is because steering geometry typically only lets the wheels themselves move so far, and a predictable amount of angular deflection per degree of control input is seen as just a good idea?
@starkatt but some cars still have much more sensitive steering than others
our current car (a prius) turns the wheels _way_ more for a given amount of steering than our previous one (a saturn vue) (that previous one had such a wide turning radius that it was actually frequently annoying)
@starkatt it is a good thought, though! it would be nice if it worked like that
@Felthry as far as I can tell from internet searches, the number of turns lock-to-lock (I think that's how it's described?) varies a bit, and three full rotations (one and a half each way) is standard for ordinary cars but some sports cars and race cars have noticeably less
it might be a coincidence of what kind of steering ratio (angle of steering:angle of tire) is common in ordinary cars plus how tightly people need to turn for low-speed maneuvers
@Felthry I can guess
maybe it's the sweet spot for how far you have to rotate vs how much force you need to rotate it, steering hasn't been motorized for long and after that they just stuck with it