Why are we more likely to bang our knee on the corner of a desk or bed or head when in an enclosed area than to close a car door on our fingers or hit the side of a door against your face when shutting the car door?

Question

Just examples above but what I mean is some accidents seem to occur more often than others.

In: Biology

Answer 1

Do you regularly hit yourself in the face with your car door? Most people open or close car doors either standing outside the car, or sitting in the seat. It’s not easy to hit yourself in the face.

Banging your knees on the other hand has a lot more micro-variations of what can go wrong, and you likely pass by knee level objects significantly more times during a day than you get in and out of your car, so if anything, it’s just a numbers game.

There are more ways to mess up walking around a desk or something than closing a car door. That being said, I can’t say that I have NOT hit myself in the face while closing my car door. I most certainly have, and I still don’t really understand how. However my running theory is that I am generally more away and facing towards my car when I open the door. If I just got out, I’ll sometimes be slightly back and probably closer. I tend to kind of push it closed past my face like I’m swatting away a bug from my face instead of pushing forward at arm’s reach. I don’t usually push it closed with my right arm, so I can hit myself as it shuts.

Slamming fingers does also happen though I’m not quite sure how it works, haven’t done that one yet. I assume items because someone grips the edge of the door instead of pushing against the flat outside surface.

Answer 2

Probably because there is a lot more space outside. If you step around a desk or bed, you are probably pretty close to it, whereas if you have a table set up outside you can go around it much easier.
Inside there is a much different ratio of walking space to furniture than outside, thus you have a much bigger chance of walking too close to a corner.