Quote:
Will said:
Quote:
Renegade 13 said:
Personally, I'd much rather be driving some 1970's-1980's car than a newer car. Why? The metal content. Sure, the plastic car and the metallic car may have similar strengths, etc. But everyone's failed to take into account a very important aspect; inertia. In a heavier vehicle, you will stand a much better chance of survival in the event of a collision with another vehicle, simply due to inertia.
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With all the science people on these boards, nobody's called bull**** on this yet? The weight of the vehicle does NOT increase the safety. If anything, extra weight makes car more dangerous.
You should recall from Newtonian physics, that inertia is the tendancy of mass to remain at it's current velocity (or speed and heading, if you prefer). When the vehicle is moving, the inertia causes it to keep moving at its current speed until outside forces slow it down. In a wreck, this outside force is applied during a fraction of a second. So, the equation for kinetic energy, E=(0.5)*m*(v^2), says that a vehicle that is twice as heavy will have to withstand twice as much energy on impact. With older cars, the extra weight does not add to the structure of the vehicle overall, and simply adds on to the stress the frame needs to deal with to protect the occupants of the vehicle.
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Ok, lets use your equation, E=1/2(m)(v^2). My vehicle weighs in at, oh lets say 2000 kg. Yours weighs 1000 kg (all that plastic
). We're both travelling 100 km/h. My kinetic energy = .5(2000)(100^2) = 10,000,000 or 1.0 x 10^7 (Joules, I think). Your kinetic energy is .5(1000)(100^2) = 5,000,000 J or 5.0 x 10^6 J.
So we're both in a head-on crash. For my forward kinetic energy to be dropped down to 0 J (and therefore 0 km/h) I would have to encounter a force of -10,000,000 J in the direction that I'm travelling. However, your vehicle is only capable of supplying a counter-force of -5,000,000 J. Therefore, after my vehicle impacts yours, I should have 10,000,000 J - 5,000,000 J = 5,000,000 J of kinetic energy remaining in the motion of my vehicle. Reverse the above kinetic energy equation, and you get 5,000,000/.5/2000kg = 5000. Take the square root of 5000 to get the velocity of 70.7 km/h remaining. So, based upon what little I know of physics, I would decellerate about 30 km/h in a very short amount of time, while you, if you were lucky in your lighter vehicle, would decellerate a minimum of the 100 km/h you were formerly travelling. A situation such as this is why a semi-truck (or any other large truck for that matter) is more likely to survive in the event of a crash with a smaller vehicle. They sure don't have that much plastic on them either!
Now, since I'm not the best when it comes to physics, can someone please point out all the flaws in my thinking?
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