undefined | Better HN

0 pointsMarsymars23h ago0 comments

I expect energy dissipation scales in a similar way... e.g. I'd expect a head-on crash of two light cars to be roughly comparable in severity to occupants to a head-on crash of two heavy cars. Is my intuition off here?

0 comments

2 comments · 1 top-level

LearnYouALisp19h ago· 1 in thread

For the same speed, the total energy would be Car-v^2 vs SUV-to-Car-v^2

But the smaller cars are probably more carefully designed for "crunch" zones, preserving their occupants by maximizing the effect of available material. The nominal energy involved vs Cars would simply scale as Mass of SUV in Cars.

MarsymarsOP18h ago

Right, I'm aware of the energy the calculations give, but I don't see a good reason to assume that smaller cars have more efficiently designed crumple zones. I'd expect crumple zones on larger cars to scale in energy dissipation roughly linearly with mass. (Assuming similarly structured cars - e.g. I'd expect cars with safety cages and body on frame vehicles to perform differently from unibody vehicles.)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse