[BackinBlackSS/RS]

Originally Posted by Coldpants

Really? Then you sit in my Buick and I will hit you with my friends beetle and we will see who ends up better. Common sense is not actual sense. The physics of a crash is not simple. In a car like that Bel Air or my Buick if you hit something the car sustains little damage. But the kinetic energy of the car (and being heaver this car will have much more of it) has to go somewhere. It goes into the softest thing which is you. Also without crumple zones and airbags your body will be subject to much more force a=dv/dt. If mass was the major factor in surviving a car crash indy cars should be huge hulking monsters and until the 60's they were. Until they began to understand the physics of a crash. Those cars shatter on impact taking some of the force of the impact with each piece saving the driver.

Car safety systems are designed to do three things.
To increase the time of the collision to reduce the force of the impact by increasing dt. Airbags, bumpers, crumple zones. To stabilize the body so that it decelerates with the cars new lower acceleration. Seatbelts. Last they carry the force of the impact away from the occupants. The cabin or safety cage and weak points designed to separate in extreme collisions.