Natural Laws, Force of Impact

Factors that Determine the Force of Impact

Knowing how to operate the car is not enough for good driving. You also should understand how the laws of nature can affect your car's behavior. Are you familiar with the effect of gravity on the movement of automobiles? Do you remember how inertia works? Do you know what factors determine the force impact--the force generated when objects meet? There are three basic ways that we control the motion of our cars. They are speed, braking, and steering. Each of these functions is affected by the laws of gravity, centrifugal force, inertia, kinetic energy, and friction. You can not act against these forces, but you can learn what to do if you want to minimize their effects.

What is Force of Impact?

Force of impact is the force generated when objects meet. The faster you drive, the greater the impact or striking power of your vehicle. The laws of physics determine that the force of impact increases with the square of the increase in speed. So, if you double the speed of a car, you increase its force of impact four times. If you triple the speed, the impact is nine times as great. So striking something at these speeds is like driving off a one, four, and nine story building respectively.

When two vehicles moving at the same rate of speed are involved in a collision, the vehicle that weighs less will take the greater impact; the larger and heavier the vehicle, the greater the energy and momentum. The smaller and lighter vehicle will have greater deceleration and may even be pushed in the reverse direction of travel.

Unbelted persons in a collision cannot protect themselves against the force of impact. Without the seat belt restraint system, they will hit the car interior or anything in their way with a tremendous amount of force.