M758

This was posted in the 944 Forum. Interesting info about the Truck vs Car.
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">
Ran across this <a href="http://www.bridger.us/2002/12/16/CrashTestingMINICooperVsFordF150" target="_blank">link</a> today.

Ford F150
<img src="http://www.bridger.us/mini/pictures/crashtest/0110_2_34.jpg" alt=" - " />

Mini Cooper
<img src="http://www.bridger.us/mini/pictures/crashtest/0222_2_15.jpg" alt=" - " />

</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Remember that both vehicles hit the same off-set barrier at the same speed and that the Ford Expedition uses the same platform as the F150 so I would assume the same forward Crash structure.

Seems like size and weight alone do not mean safety....

(I of course expect the Cayenne to be much better designed! It is a P-car after all!)

dawktah

Mini of course. Highway safety Insurance rated the vehicle very high! Ford for some reason can't get the crash test passage in order.

John from WA

Of course if the F150 hit the mini with both going 20mph, the mass of the F150 would launch the Mini to the moon. Not the same as hitting an immovable brick wall at 40mph.

Flying Finn

Little trivia: which one is harder,

Two F150 trucks nose collision, both driving at 40 mph, or hitting a brick wall at with F150 at 40 mph?

M758

Answer...
.... Same it is all about momentum

Greg Fishman

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by M758:
<strong>Answer...
.... Same it is all about momentum</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">I think you are wrong. The wall would give and absorb some energy, the other truck "B" moving at 40mph would have a lot of kinetic energy that would not be absorbed by the other truck "A" going 40mph and transmitted back into the truck"B". Basically you are saying that hitting the same truck at 0mph or 40mph is the same, which is wrong.

M Danger

the 2 trucks.. DUH, they have a closing speed of 80

Anir

The question may not be as simple as it seems. In real life, you'd have to take into account the angle at which the trucks hit head-on (glancing blow or direct impact), the amount of energy absorbed by their respective frontal crash structures (vs. a rigid, unforgiving brick wall), etc, etc.

Having said that, I'd still rather hit something at an effective speed of 40 mph rather than 80 mph.

PogueMoHone

Simple Physics,

Force = Mass x Acceleration

Two trucks hitting would be double the force, or equal to one truck hitting at 80 MPH

How would that F150 look if it hit the barrier at 80MPH?

Anir

Colm,

Another equation that comes to mind is kinetic energy = 1/2 mv2. It's been 13 years since I worked as an engineer, but it would appear to me that there is a lot more energy involved in the 80 mph scenario, since KE varies with the square of the velocity.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, and I'll stick to practicing medicine. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

Speedraser

According to the NHTSA, two identical vehicles going 40 mph and colliding exactly head-on (no angle) is exactly the same crash as one of those vehicles hitting a solid wall (assuming that it does not give at all, thus absorbing no energy) exactly head-on at 40 mph, even though the closing speed is 80 in the former and 40 in the latter. The reason, I believe, is that identical cars collapse exactly the same as each other and absorb exactly the same amount of energy. Basically, the kinetic energy involved in the extra 40 mph is absorbed by the the extra crush of having two front ends collapsing instead of just one.

It's been way too long for me to attempt to figure out the physics equation.

PogueMoHone

Let me put it this way

If you had to make a choice which would you pick to sit in?

The truck into the wall at 40 MPH or meet another one going at 40MPH?

The NHTSA has produced a lot of bogus statistics.

John from WA

The wall of course. But if the question was a wall at 40 or another truck at 20 then it would be a wash. Now a mini at 40 into a wall is probably better then a mini at 20 into a truck at 20.

MetalSolid

Newton states, to every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction. So, driver in 6000lb F150 pushes against wall at 40mph, wall pushes back. Driver in the F150 has broken legs, broken wrists and what appears like a broken neck! Driver in the Mini walks away.

PogueMoHone

Look at the original question from Flying Finn, the Mini was not one of the options.