November 23rd, 2010 
admin Filed under: By the Numbers, Safety
Shaun de Jager, Founder of RoadAwareness.org speaks out about road safety and road related issues.
The myth is that if two cars travelling at the same speed, say 50km/hr and collide head-on, the effect and damage is the same as one car colliding with a solid, immovable object at 100km/hr. I’ve heard this several times but it makes physics buffs cringe because it’s false.
Continue reading Road Myths: Physics of a head-on collision
Road Myths: Physics of a head-on collision originally appeared on AOL Autos Canada on Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The above it’s true if the two vehicles have the same weight (or similar). If one of the vehicles is much heavier than the other one (a tractor trailer vs a motorcycle), then the conclusion from the myth would be correct.
If a motorcycle were to collide with a truck, it would be much more like hitting a solid, immovable object for sure. However, there is less mass and that means less force would be released (Force=Mass X Velocity). Although there would be less force, bikes simply aren’t designed to be crashed like cars are. Lots of variables.