Which scenario is worse? Going 50 miles per hour and colliding head on with another car going 50 miles per hour or going 100 miles per hour and hitting a stationary car head on?

Question

Edit: Assume both cars are identical

In: 0

Answer 1

I’m not a physics wizard but …
If I’m not wrong, the crash force is mass * velocity, in the first example, you would have (X+Y)*v where X and Y is the cars masses and v Is the velocity in the hit point, I’d say it’s 50mph expressed in m/s.
In the second scenario, it’d be just X*v

EDIT I’m using velocity when it’s acceleration BUT…in a crash, the velocity goes to 0 so I asume v = a in this case

So, if both cars have the same mass, there’s no difference, BUT if the cars doesn’t have the same mass, it could be better or worse depending on who you are crashing against.

Imagine a focus (1300kg) against another focus at 50km/h, (1300+1300)*833ms. It’s 2.166T of force

A focus (1300kg) against a smart (1000kg) at 50km/h, (1300+1000)*833. 1.9T of force

A focus (1300kg) against a hammer (3000kg) at 50km/h, (1300+3000)*833, 2.5T.

So imagine, hitting your focus against a wall at 100 km/h would be 1300*1666, 2.16T

It just depends on the other car

Ps. Please check my maths