How is the newer cars are more fragile during an accident but are more safe for the passengers
In: Physics
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The newer cars are more fragile. This means that they’re more likely to deform and break — but, here’s the key. Deforming and breaking saps some of the force of the collision.
If the car were built strong and rigid, more of the force would be transmitted through the frame and into the body of the car.
Designing the car to twist and warp and deform means less force gets put on you, the operator.
Newer cars behave like air cushions, except that they don’t go back to their original form.
This is done to protect people both inside and outside the vehicle. By deforming itself the car dissipates a great deal of energy therefore reducing the impact force exerted on people.
Think of it like this. If you and a friend are carrying a 12ft beam of steel and your friend drops his end, you’re going to feel a serious amount of vibration in your hands. Now if that’s a 12ft beam of glass and your friend drops his end, it’s going to shatter and you won’t feel a thing.
Similarly, if the front of the car crumples, that means that most of the force is spent on crumpling the car and not crumpling your bones.
So a good car will break the car (acting like glass) and not you (acting like steel).
The energy from a crash needs to go somewhere and destroy something.
It could either destroy the car, or destroy the people.
For obvious reasons, we made the choice to destroy the cars so that the forces acting on people were far less.
Older cars with a “strong” build would make the driver into the crumple zone
Imagine someone hit you with a baseball bat or a pool noodle. Both are about the same size. One is soft. One is firm. Which one will hurt you the least? The soft one, even at the same speed.
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