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Classical Physics
Car Crash Physics: Deceleration Calculations
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[QUOTE="sophiecentaur, post: 6849410, member: 199289"] The devil is in the detail here. That graph is for a simple structure. In the case of a car body (which is designed not to behave like a spring) you have a multiplicity of these curves at work - one for each part - with very different vertical scales. You don't need to do any experiments to appreciate what I'm saying - just cast your mind back when you (or a friend) dinked their car against another car or a wall. Even for a very low speed impact, did the car genuinely bounce as a result of making that dent? Even the gentlest nudge will cause (expensive) deformation, showing that the Energy was dissipated by design and not stored. The structure [I]wants[/I] to absorb energy. The more I think about the Hooke's Law model, the more dodgy it looks. Incidentally, there have been attempts to replace squashy steel with dampers on the bumper / fender, with air or even water being pushed out of a small hole. If you really want me to, I will search for a reference but I heard of this system way before the Internet existed. [/QUOTE]
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Car Crash Physics: Deceleration Calculations
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