Vehicle weight

C

CTBburn

Guest
Theoretically, if you had two vehicles that are made the same (crumple zones, etc) and are of the same size, but one is much heavier than the other, which vehicle would produce less injuries in an accident?

Any insight?
 
bcp

bcp

In My Opinion
CTBburn said:
Theoretically, if you had two vehicles that are made the same (crumple zones, etc) and are of the same size, but one is much heavier than the other, which vehicle would produce less injuries in an accident?

Any insight?
Click to expand...
if both are equal in crumple zones, size make etc... ( it sounds like you mean two identical vehicles but one is loaded with the fat family and the other is driven by stick woman) the impact should be spread evenly between the two regardless of individual weight.
 
GWguy

GWguy

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bcp said:
if both are equal in crumple zones, size make etc... ( it sounds like you mean two identical vehicles but one is loaded with the fat family and the other is driven by stick woman) the impact should be spread evenly between the two regardless of individual weight.
Click to expand...

The heavier vehicle would have more inertia and could create more damage, but the safety factor and injury of the passengers would probably be about equal.

I'm sure these numbers are available on a crash test website somewhere as a standard "safety rating" number.
 
bcp

bcp

In My Opinion
GWguy said:
The heavier vehicle would have more inertia and could create more damage, but the safety factor and injury of the passengers would probably be about equal.

I'm sure these numbers are available on a crash test website somewhere as a standard "safety rating" number.
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true, however with the crush zones built into the car, the inertia is going to be passed from one to the other, Im sure we can come up with some equation that shows equalization of force after impact.
 
GWguy

GWguy

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bcp said:
true, however with the crush zones built into the car, the inertia is going to be passed from one to the other, Im sure we can come up with some equation that shows equalization of force after impact.
Click to expand...

Agreed. When everything stops moving, we have equalization.

Ok, not what you meant, I know..... :lol:
 
bcp

bcp

In My Opinion
Thinking about this
initial impact I think for a very short split second the lighter vehicle would feel greater force.
Once the crush zones start crushing the force might equalize
if there is still force left after crush zones are totally collapsed, I think that the weight of the heavier vehicle would then over power the lighter vehicle.

so basically, I think it depends on the initial force of impact.
 
C

CTBburn

Guest
This question stems from a conversation with my boyfriend about heavier vehicles. I argued that the extra weight might play some sort of role in an identical accident (not necessarily with each other) and it might transfer to the driver so a lighter vehicle would be safer but he says its the opposite. We didn't look very long but we found conflicting internet data.

Then we ended up confusing ourselves on the original questions so we I thought it might be fun to put it up on the forum to see if someone (who didn't fail high school physics) might be able to make a better educated guess.

:nerd: Yep, this is the kind of thing we talk about at our house.
 
GWguy

GWguy

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bcp said:
Thinking about this
initial impact I think for a very short split second the lighter vehicle would feel greater force.
Once the crush zones start crushing the force might equalize
if there is still force left after crush zones are totally collapsed, I think that the weight of the heavier vehicle would then over power the lighter vehicle.

so basically, I think it depends on the initial force of impact.
Click to expand...

Don't want to hijack the thread, don't want to open a new new line of banter, but.....

I remember an argument about 2 vehicles in a head on. Both vehicles are doing 50mph. The question is: what is the impact speed?

One camp says 100mph, the combined speed. The other camp says 50, a single vehicle does not gain energy from the other, the force is neutralized at the point of impact. No more damage to a single vehicle than if it were doing 50 and hit a brick wall. A definitive answer on this would probably answer your question on transfer of force and crumple zones.

And I haven't taken sides on that argument.
 
bcp

bcp

In My Opinion
Recently I found some videos on the internet that showed a light newer car with crumple zones being run into one of the old non crumple heavy road boats from the early 60s.
the light car with crumple zones won the battle.
so its not only the weight, it is how the distribution of force applies to each vehicle.
 
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