On 6/23/2010 6:13 PM, Krypsis wrote:
> On 24/06/2010 1:23 PM, dsi1 wrote:
>> On 6/23/2010 4:36 PM, Omelet wrote:
>>> In article<_cadnUqZ2NmZdrzRnZ2dnUVZ_vCdnZ2d@earthlink .com>,
>>> David > wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:12:33 -0500 in rec.food.cooking, Omelet
>>>> > wrote,
>>>>> In >,
>>>>> > wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Yes. The car posted previously was destroyed and the Smart Car
>>>>>> bounced around like a ball in both the videos I watched. I would
>>>>>> *not* want to be inside one whether or not the "cage" survived.
>>>>>
>>>>> With a seat belt and an air bag, I'd rather be inside of one of those
>>>>> than a car that crushed me to death. :-(
>>>>
>>>> But being bounced around like that would really smart.
>>>
>>> Hence the seatbelt and sidways air bags.
>>> They are supposed to prevent you from being bounced around.
>>>
>>> I'd rather be bruised than crushed. ;-)
>>
>> It's a very impressive video. I would have a hard time believing that
>> stopping in less than 4 or so feet from 70 MPH would be survivable for
>> most people. My guess is that you're talking 60, 70, 80, 90 or so Gs of
>> deceleration. The good part is that your body would be quite presentable
>> although your eyeballs wouldn't be in their normal location - unless you
>> like to keep them on your dashboard.
>>
>> Those cars would be pretty good over here in Hawaii since 50 MPH is
>> pretty fast for us. :-)
>
> 50mph + the 50mph of the other often much larger vehicle and you have a
> closing speed of 100mph. If the other vehicle is an SUV weighing 2 or 3
> times more than the Smart, the momentum of that SUV will accelerate the
> Smart to a rearward direction effectively increasing the relative speed
> of the Smart.
>
> Surviving a sudden stop from just 60mph is problematical for most
> people. You see, the problems arise from the momentum of "parts" of your
> body. Your torso, because it is strapped in, stops suddenly. Your head
> moves on and your neck snaps. I have seen cases where people have not a
> single mark on them but the neck is broken and they are quite dead!
> You will also note that the crash didn't include real people...
> significant fact that! I have seen other Smart crash tests where even
> the airbag failed to prevent the dummies head from contacting the
> steering wheel or dash. Was that force enough to snap a real persons
> neck? I wonder!
>
> Significant also is the fact that the Smart spun around violently. These
> twisting forces are quite sufficient to snap your spine.
>
> People survive high speed crashes now because of the cars progressive
> crumple zone. That is an area of the car forward of the firewall that
> progressively crumples absorbing the initial impact forces. To be
> successful, the vehicle needs to have significant body length forward of
> the firewall. With the Smart, your FEET are almost at the very front of
> the vehicle. Effectively, your feet are IN the crumple zone. Look at the
> front left corner of the Smart in the 70mph crash test! The driver might
> be ok in this instance but the passenger would have significant issues.
> You may survive but, as like as not, you will be forever condemned to
> riding around in a small vehicle, a wheelchair.
>
> Krypsis
>

A lot depends of what you hit with your car. My guess is that hitting a
solid object like a tree or a big concrete thingie is likely to fatal at
half the speed shown in the video. All things being equal, it's better
to another car than a tree.