So your head didn’t hit the stone of the road, I guess that helps.
But, you still hit your head on *something,* essentially. The inside of your helmet.
All that force is still in there, right?
In: Physics
The aim of your helmet is not to protect your head, but to protect your brain.
Your brain sits inside your skull floating in fluid. It shouldn’t bump into anything. Your skull is your natural helmet. It is domed, which is a great shape for dissipating force. It’s much harder to break a dome than it is to break a flat plane. A great way to test this out is to try and break an egg on the tip of the egg compared to the side. There will be a significant difference in force required.
When you get a brain injury, your brain smacks against the inside of your skull and is bruised. The aim is to stop that from happening.
A helmet is a domed shape that dissipates the initial force exactly like your skull would. Your skull then hits the inside of the helmet, but much less force is transferred from helmet to skull than from concrete to helmet. Your skull then dissipates the force even further and your brain stays floating in its fluid and never hits the inside of your skull.
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