Bicycle and motorcycle helmets have to be replaced every couple of years and after any accident or drop in order to be safe. Why then are football helmets, which encounter more frequent impacts, safe to be used over and over again? Is there a reason vehicle helmets couldn’t be designed like football helmets?
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Certain materials are very good at absorbing impacts but can only do it once before they are no longer usable. These materials are very effective so they are used in bicycle and motorcycle helmets.
Football helmets can’t make use of these materials because they need to stand up to multiple hits, you can’t give every player a new helmet every single play. Modern Football helmets are engineered with materials that are pretty good at impact absorption as well as durability, but generally single use materials are still better, so they are preferred for applications that do not require more resilient materials, like bike and motorcycle helmets.
TL;DR they are not as good at protecting the head as helmets that can only be used once, because you need to make compromises to allow them to be more durable, but they are getting closer as we get better materials to put in them.
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