Re: Kyoto, Driving our car

Jim McCoy (mccoy@communities.com)
Fri, 12 Dec 1997 13:18:09 -0800


Michael Lorrey <retroman@together.net> wrote:
[...]
>> But as to the car, modern
>> designs and materials can do far better than Henry Ford had in
mind
>> when, in 1926, he said that " A heavy man cannot run as well as a
>> trim man. You do not need weight for strength"; (S. Abouzar,
>> personal communication, 3 July 1991).
>
>Thats accelerating performance. To disprove the usefulness of this
>quote, take a 98 lb weakling in the end zone of a football field.
Take a
>240 lb linebacker in the opposite end zone. Have them accelerate to
full
>speed, and hit each other head on. Who do you think is going to be
more
>seriously hurt????

Why don't you try repeating this silly analogy by giving the 98 pound
weakling a full set of pads and regulation football gear and strip
the linebacker naked. The weakling will still only weigh around 120
pounds but will be able to walk away from the collision, unlike the
linebacker. Or to stretch the silly analogy games even further, why
not ask yourself how it is that cops can walk around wearing nothing
but a thin vest of composites and polymers and still live after being
shot with a piece of lead moving fast enough to have KE that makes
your linebacker look like a lightweight? Kenetic energy is important
when trying to figure out who will survive a collision, but you are
better off betting your life on smart designers and materials
engineers than high-school physics.

jim