| Author | Message | ||
     Crusty |
I got this link over at Wild Guzzi. It's a pretty interesting 5 minute video: http://youtu.be/R7dG9UlzeFM | ||
| Strokizator |
At 120 mph, M x Vē is pretty compelling. All the air bags and crumple zones in the world aren't going to get you out of that one. | ||
| Nillaice |
wow. thanks for sharing that | ||
| Court |
Wait a minute . . . . . "Hitting a concrete block at 120mph is like two cars hitting each other at 120mph". I doubt that. When a car . . .going 60mph hits a concrete block the impact force is the deceleration from 60mph to 0. If TWO cars of EQUAL MASS (we'll assume it to be equal to weight here) hit head on . . . BOTH of them decelerate from 60mph to zero. The force of a car hitting a concrete block at 120mph decelerates from car from 120mph to 0. I'd guess the force is 4X that of 2 cars hitting at 60mph. Wait a minute and some folks lots smarter than me will be here to sort this out . . . . | ||
| Crusty |
I don't want to be in a head on at any speed above what a bumper car reaches. I bet I wouldn't be twice as dead at 120 as I would be at 60. For that matter, I wouldn't want to hit a solid concrete wall at 60, either. Or even at 30, if you get my drift. The last time I was in a serious car accident, I spent a week in the hospital, followed by a couple of months wearing a collar. I was t-boned by a car accelerating from a stop, and he couldn't have been going much over 20. I really don't want to experience 400Gs of deceleration like the mannequins in the Escort did in the video. | ||
| Oldog |
Court Myth Busters did a segment on the 1 car hits wall and 2 cars hit each other. the results were un expected.... | ||
| Sifo |
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| Damnut |
My favorite Mythbusters video, kinda subject related. | ||
| Court |
....the results were un expected.... And precisely as I described. | ||
| Aesquire |
To phrase it differently than the Mythbuster guys, and awesome footage, btw... 2 cars head on at X mph is equivalent to hitting a stone wall at X mph. Each car goes from X to Zero and experiences that deceleration. The mass and energy level is doubled, but the "effect" is the cars each stop dead as they mirror image hit. The damage becomes more random as the slight bit of asymmetry and off center multiply....... which is why the wrecks aren't identical, just darn close. Certainly close enough to prove the theory. | ||
| Thumper74 |
In a modern car, you're likely to walk away at 30mph, or even 40mph. The cars are crash tested at 40mph. The scary one is the new small offset crash test that you're like to experience in a left of center/ran off the road type accident. Google it. I believe that a 60mph crash is a 60mph crash, regardless of what's hit, assuming you come to a complete stop. There are other variables, like vehicle weight, that come into play. A Honda Fit hitting a semi head on at 60mph is likely to come to a complete stop and then, accleration in the opposite direction, which sounds painful. | ||
| Court |
I've struggled to convince folks in NYC that "bigger" isn't safer. They "feel" safe in their 75th Anniversary Suburbans and Range Rovers . . . while the Smart Car runs away with the safety awards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz-s1sIoLhU And . . .just cause I've neither the time nor inclination for the inevitable debate . . . I know there are great examples all over the spectrum. I'm driving a 2013 Escape that I feel safe in . . . . http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/ford/es cape | ||
| Sifo |
Court, did you listen to what your video actually said about vehicle size. Take another listen from about 1:35 to 2:20. Size matters. | ||
| Court |
Interesting . . and you are correct. The "small" doesn't necessarily mean a person can not be, in a relative sense, safe but they make a point that bigger is safer. Interesting. | ||
| Sifo |
Much depends on what you are planning on hitting.  | ||
| Two_seasons |
Or, to put it another way, what is about to hit your vehicle! | ||
| Reepicheep |
So clearly we should make larger vehicles illegal, as they are "high capacity assault vehicles" that inflict more damage on the vehicle they hit in order to reduce the amount of damage they incur. (Kidding about the illegal part, but from a moral and physics standpoint, I was always uncomfortable with people who get a big car because they (or their kids) are "bad drivers" and they want to keep them safe. Kinetic energy is going somewhere, so you are hurting somebody else more to get hurt less yourself. I resist bringing it up in that context because I try not to be too much of an insufferable engineer) | ||
| Court |
>>>I try not to be too much of an insufferable engineer) Become a contractor . . you never have to think much and folks are accustomed to hearing "we're late and over budget". :-) . . . and . . BONUS . . . we do a lot of the Engineers work for them. Hahahahahaha | ||
| Kenm123t |
Size and Weight matter few years ago some of our ferguson size guys found that out when I drove my E350 super duty over a Toyota lol Didnt even have to replace the bumpers! |
