From: Spike Jones (spike66@attglobal.net)
Date: Thu Feb 21 2002 - 21:13:51 MST
Jerome wrote:
> Good point, Dave. And yes, it was remarkably painful.
>
> Supposing that the speed of the van when it struck me could be specified (I
> understand that we do not have sufficient data to derive this speed)
You could estimate it if you knew the mass of the car that hit you.
Remember that in a collision momentum is conserved. The mass
of your van times its velocity plus the mass of the car times its
velocity (after the crunch) equals the precrunch velocity of the
car times its mass. Energy was not conserved in the collision:
most of the car's kinetic energy went into bending metal and
making the crunch noise.
> could you say then? Suppose, for example, that the van was moving at, say,
> 10 mph. How would the result change if it were moving at, say 20 mph? 30 mph?
How far did you fly after the van hit you? Thats the easiest way
to estimate the momentum transfer. spike
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