Concussion question regarding PSI for football helmets

[tmh556]

Hi, I have a bit of a random question which is a little apples to oranges. I saw that concussions on the human brain are caused at roughly 70 to 120 g forces as measured from sensors placed on a football helmet:

https://www.google.com/search?q=bar...nt=gws-wiz#kpvalbx=_tn49Y8j2J76jz7sP8d2o8AU_4 My question is...is there a way to figure out the psi (pounds per square inch) on the helmet that causes this 70 to 120 gs. Is there a way to infer this or roughly estimate this number? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Tom

 

[Bystander]

No.

 

[berkeman]

My question is...is there a way to figure out the psi (pounds per square inch) on the helmet that causes this 70 to 120 gs.

The more important quantity is "impulse":

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160205173210.htm

 

[russ_watters]

Usually when we get impact questions we are stymied by not knowing the acceleration. Here we have it, so I don't see why it can't be answered. If the head is 7 kg and has a cross sectional area of 0.03 sq meters, at 120g the pressure is 274 kPa.

 

[erobz]

Usually when we get impact questions we are stymied by not knowing the acceleration. Here we have it, so I don't see why it can't be answered. If the head is 7 kg and has a cross sectional area of 0.03 sq meters, at 120g the pressure is 274 kPa.

I would suspect the issue is with the remainder of the body attached to the head (hopefully ). It is going to accelerate and rotate from the force along with the head. That should increase the force for a given “head” acceleration.