Re: Crash Tests (Saab 9-5 pictures??)

[Lawrence C Leung <l.leung@juno.com>]

In this case, what you have is nearly COMPLETE in-elasticity. A couple of
feet over even a 1/2 second works out to a fairly insignificant bounce
back velocity. For comparison, 60 MPH is 88 feet per second. So, to be
fair, assume bounce back to be 4 feet (a hood length) over a 1/2 second,
or 8 ft/sec. This is less than 10% of 88 ft/sec or less than 6 MPH (3
m/s). Now try this in the 60/0 post to find the total energy that can be
absorbed. 

On Wed, 15 Dec 1999 06:10:44 -0800 (PST) Todd Phenneger
<phen9461@uidaho.edu> writes:
>Ok,
>	I'm not even go to TRY to get into the Physics of this
>debate.  Not my area. :-)   Just was thinking of something I saw a 
>while
>back.
>	Did anyone see the first pics of the crash testing done on the 
>new
>Saab 9-5 by Saab???  I believe speed was 60mph for each car.  Head 
>on,
>offset 1/3 from each other  (I mean really, how often is the 
>collision
>DIRECLY head on, usually at least one car is steering away. )   Hence 
>the
>offset.
>	THey hit, both cars rear tires actually came off the ground 
>about
>1-2 feet.  THen they both ended up back a few feet from each other.  
>Just
>though this would indicate the mild elastic effect that people are
>throwing around.  To me this clearly shows that there is some 
>elasticity
>to the collision.  But not much since it was only a couple feet.  
>(few
>feet, not sure, didn't measure the picture. :-)   
>	BTW...if any one has the Automobile article with it in there, 
>or
>maybe another article, if you look real carefully, you can see the
>headlamp from the car on the left about 20 feet in front of the car, 
>still
>going 60mph.  :-)  Thought that was pretty funny.  I noticed the 
>headlight
>seemed to be missing.  Then saw an object the same size trailing 
>glass
>fragments flying through the air, guess I'm not the only person that 
>has a
>problem with the adjustment screws pushing in to far and the light 
>coming
>loose. :-)
>	l8r
>
>	Todd Phenneger
>	1983 ur-q / black / getting a MC
>	1984 4000 Turbo quattro (Faster than your average 4kq)
>	1987 4000 quattro / Saphire Metallic Blue/ Girlfriend's
>	1996 A6q / Volcano / Dads Car
>   *****1985 5kt / PARTING OUT!
>  *	http://www.uidaho.edu/~phen9461/motorsports.htm
>