[DeTomaso] speaking of wheels falling off--- (Now, head on collision)

[hemipanter at hemipanter.se]

There should be a whole different story in terms of the forces that the
driver is subjected, than the forces between the sum of the mass slow
down. Of the damage to a crash car, you can see that there is a big
difference in what areas "slowdown" has occurred at its highest.
Goran

>  
>     Kinetic energy is 1/2 MV^2  (velocity is squared).  So a car at 120
> has four times the kinetic energy of a car at 60.  But two cars at 60
> (closing speed of 120) have a total of twice the energy of a single car at
> 60.  Momentum is MV, and is useful in some physics problems because the
> momentum is conserved when two masses join.
>  
>     I suppose there is a lot more to this because the cars crush very
> differently in different collisions, so you'd have to know something about
> the energy absorbed by the metal deforming.
>  
>     The velocity squared term may explain why high speed crashes can be so
> bad. 
>  
> Ken