Everybody talks about modern cars having crumple zones that “absorb” the impact in a collision so that the people inside don’t get injured, and that’s awesome! But I’m confused about the conservation of energy.. if two 2,000 lb cars crash into each other at 50mph, does ALL that energy get converted into heat and noise in the collision? Does it somehow get stored as potential energy in the crumple zone? Does it do something else?
In: Physics
It pretty much all ends up as heat and/or noise. It takes energy to deform metal by breaking bonds between atoms, and then the energy of the bond is released as heat/sound.
With enough impact applied to a small amount of material, you can really see this effect more clearly. You can take a cold piece of metal and make it hot in seconds just by hammering on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXF60MOWUeY&ab_channel=SalemSaugusNPS
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