Physics Of Collisions Essay

Introduction:

When it comes to cars, there are plenty of safety features incorporated by manufactures to ensure a smooth and safe ride. Some of these features seat belts, airbags, and antilock brakes. Nowadays, there have been great improvements to technology within cars to aid in the avoidance of collisions altogether. Examples of these technologies include blind spot detection, backup cameras, 360-degree cameras, and autonomous driving. Many of these newer safety features are there to avoid collisions. However, whenever a collision does occur, there is not much there to protect passengers in the rear of the car. Looking into this, there is evidence that shows that rear passengers do obtain injuries in collisions and pose the threat of contributing to others injuries. So, why are rear passenger airbags not standard in your vehicle?

The Physics of Collisions:

Cars are designed to crumple during a collision as shown in Figure 1. This lengthens the duration of the crash so that the deceleration is less intense. Without crumple zones, the deceleration would be too great for humans and is equivalent to over 15 times what fighter pilots endure during training (MinutePhysics, 2015). Therefore, the longer the duration of the crash, the safer it is for the passengers as there is more time for the vehicle to slow down as demonstrated by Figure 2. There are two types of collisions that a vehicle can incur. Elastic collisions and Inelastic collisions. Elastic collisions are observed in low-speed car carshes where the bumper deforms to absorb the energy and then will pop back out. On the other hand, an inelastic collision is observed through a high-speed car crash in which the bumper would completely crumple to stop the vehicle (Townsend,