Collision in Western Australia, Australia

AI Thread Summary
A recent tragic collision in Western Australia involved a drunk driver traveling the wrong way on a freeway, resulting in the death of a woman. The discussion centers on calculating the impact force of the collision, given both vehicles were traveling at speeds of 27.77 m/s and 41.66 m/s, with each vehicle weighing 1000 kg. Participants note that calculating the exact force requires more detailed information about vehicle deformation and dynamics, suggesting a hypothetical approach to estimate the force. The conversation also touches on the relevance of nationality in understanding local news and expresses a desire for assistance in physics calculations. Overall, the thread highlights the complexities of crash physics and the challenges faced by those unfamiliar with the subject.
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As i am new to these forums i do not have any idea of how many of the members might be from Australia. But here is the scenario, it happened 2 days ago i beleive.

A lady was killed when a drunk driver was heading down the free way... in the wrong direction . She was going (v)= 27.77m/s. he was going (v)= 41.66m/s

Assuming that each of their vehicle collided directly and their was no impact force dissapated or redirected by "riccochet" What would be the impact force be if both their vehicles weighed 1000kg each. (including driver)

If you have any queries or need clarification please don't hesitate. I don't have any idea how to calculate the following or i would
 
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You cannot calculate the "force" without much more detailed information about each vehicle. Are your four significant figures appropriate? Is this a hypothetical (homework) problem, or some morbid fascination with recent tragedy? Why is nationality relevant?
 
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The force depends on the deformation of both cars and is pretty difficult to calculate. That's what crash tests are for. But you might try assuming the pair decelerates linearly from its 70m/s closing speed to zero in 2 meters (1 for each car), and plug that into the Newtonian motion equations.
 
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What about pure amount of force at the moment of impact, not over a lineal time frame ?

As you can tell i am very much a physics noob --.--, didn't pay enough attention at school and then decided to drop out and become a chef... big mistake .

As for the deceleration, i think that would be a appropriate to say that they decelerated from 70m/s to zero in 2 meters

For this instance should we say that crumple points do not exist on the cars and compensate for that by taking off 25% of the resulting force in the calculations to take into account crumple points, as inaccurate as this may be.

In reply to Csfrogs post,

I only mentioned nationality because chances are if you were in australia you would of heard about the crash.
Its a morbid fascination
The figures specified are appropriate, from my my previous knowledge in physics i know the general velocity unit of measurement is m/s so i took the time to convert the speeds.

Off topic question, Why did you pick Caesium?
 
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Still would like some help with this please guys
 
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