On Thu, 2003-05-29 at 15:26, Randall Clague wrote: > Moderate being about 35 mph into a fixed barrier, which is the median > crash speed in this country. You're talking about 220 mph, just under > 40x the energy, into a fixed barrier - not survivable - or a head on > collision with both cars doing 110 mph. At those speeds/energies, it
A head on collision with a barrier that absorbs a negligible amount of energy (i.e. a concrete wall that does not collapse or move) is equivalent to a head on collision between two cars of equivalent mass at *the same speed*. So this is actually like a head on collision with both cars doing 220 mph in terms of the kinetic energy absorbed by one of the vehicles, since the wall doesn't absorb any. -- Sean R. Lynch <http://sean.lynch.tv/>
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