Physics Assignment Essay Example
Safety devices used in cars
i) Obtain a photograph of a car that illustrates three safety technologies and label the technologies on the photograph
ii) Investigate three different technologies that have been implemented in cars or along roads to avoid or reduce the effect of collisions. In your investigation explain how the technology works in terms of physics laws and theories.
1. Crumple zone The purpose of a crumple zone is to increase the amount of time it takes for a car to come to a stop after being hit by an object. Crumple zones cause the force to be spread out over a long period of time, reducing the impact that the passengers in the car feel. Crumple zones today are usually made of fibreglass or steel and works during a collision by turning energy into mostly thermal and sound energy, leaving a little kinetic energy from the initial impact of the collision. Without a crumple zone, if a car were to hit a wall, the amount of kinetic energy that the car exerts on the wall, would be almost equal to the amount of energy that the wall pushes on the car. Newton’s second law states that the force of an object is equal to its mass times its acceleration. With the use of crumple zones and other safety devices in cars, a person’s acceleration in a collision can be significantly lowered. Newton’s third law states that for every action there is an opposite an equal reaction. When a car collides with another object, the inertia inside the vehicle causes everything to move at the same speed as it was before the collision. If there are no crumples, the passengers would feel the same impact as the car feels when a collision occurs. Through the use of crumple zones, the reaction force is reduced, by turning the kinetic energy into alternate forms. The crumple zones allow to spread the impact over a large area of the car which decreases the amount of pressure exerted on a specific part of the car as smaller amounts of pressure are felt throughout the
i) Obtain a photograph of a car that illustrates three safety technologies and label the technologies on the photograph
ii) Investigate three different technologies that have been implemented in cars or along roads to avoid or reduce the effect of collisions. In your investigation explain how the technology works in terms of physics laws and theories.
1. Crumple zone The purpose of a crumple zone is to increase the amount of time it takes for a car to come to a stop after being hit by an object. Crumple zones cause the force to be spread out over a long period of time, reducing the impact that the passengers in the car feel. Crumple zones today are usually made of fibreglass or steel and works during a collision by turning energy into mostly thermal and sound energy, leaving a little kinetic energy from the initial impact of the collision. Without a crumple zone, if a car were to hit a wall, the amount of kinetic energy that the car exerts on the wall, would be almost equal to the amount of energy that the wall pushes on the car. Newton’s second law states that the force of an object is equal to its mass times its acceleration. With the use of crumple zones and other safety devices in cars, a person’s acceleration in a collision can be significantly lowered. Newton’s third law states that for every action there is an opposite an equal reaction. When a car collides with another object, the inertia inside the vehicle causes everything to move at the same speed as it was before the collision. If there are no crumples, the passengers would feel the same impact as the car feels when a collision occurs. Through the use of crumple zones, the reaction force is reduced, by turning the kinetic energy into alternate forms. The crumple zones allow to spread the impact over a large area of the car which decreases the amount of pressure exerted on a specific part of the car as smaller amounts of pressure are felt throughout the