[tuccillo]

I believe you are correct. Two carts each traveling at 20 MPH and colliding head on is roughly the same, in terms of damage to the cart, as a cart hitting a solid wall at 20 MPH. Of course, with two carts having the head on collision you now have 2 carts damaged.

Originally Posted by Rapscallion St Croix

It doesn't work that way. What you get is the equivalent of hitting a solid wall at 20MPH.

[RickeyD]

Originally Posted by Rapscallion St Croix

It doesn't work that way. What you get is the equivalent of hitting a solid wall at 20MPH.

Newton was wrong?

[Rapscallion St Croix]

Originally Posted by RickeyD

Newton was wrong?

Nope.

[RickeyD]

I guess crash dummies know best.

[Polar Bear]

Originally Posted by Rapscallion St Croix

It doesn't work that way. What you get is the equivalent of hitting a solid wall at 20MPH.

Originally Posted by tuccillo

I believe you are correct. Two carts each traveling at 20 MPH and colliding head on is roughly the same, in terms of damage to the cart, as a cart hitting a solid wall at 20 MPH...

Go read a physics book, guys.

[RickeyD]

Originally Posted by Polar Bear

Go read a physics book, guys.

The Villages is in a different dimension. Physics rules are different.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by Polar Bear

Go read a physics book, guys.

Well said. The situation is not equivalent because the brick wall is not moving therefore it's momentum (mass x velocity) is 0. This is directly proportional to the kinetic energy of the object, which determines all kinds of things such as damage and injury. If they don't believe this, there is always the field experiment----run your cart head on into another going 20, and run it into a brick wall at 20. Care to guess which is worse?

[RickeyD]

I think in a real world head to head crash the damage would be less then a brick wall crash at half the speed. The carts would need to be perfect cubes and meet tangent to equal the math equation.

[Chatbrat]

Energy= MV, mass x's velocity---the bigger the mass , more energy --for the same speed

What does more damage? a 60 gr bullet @ 1000 fps or a 230 gr bullet @ 1000fps ?

[RickeyD]

Anyone up to a game of chicken ?

[tuccillo]

This is really an old physics exercise. Go look it up.

Originally Posted by Polar Bear

Go read a physics book, guys.

[RickeyD]

Mythbusters on Head-on Collisions – Greg Laden's Blog

[Polar Bear]

Originally Posted by tuccillo

This is really an old physics exercise. Go look it up.

It's not an exercise, it's a basic physics principle. Of course there is energy absorbed by the "deformable" vehicles as opposed to a non-deformable wall. But it doesn't change the basic principle.

[RickeyD]

Mythbusters on Head-on Collisions – Greg Laden's Blog

[tuccillo]

Consider a wall and two golf carts collide into the wall from either side at 20 MPH. The wall doesn't move. Each cart has the same amount of damage. Now remove the wall and have the carts collide head-on at the same 20 MPH. You will have the same effect. Two cars colliding head-on have twice the energy of one car running into a wall but with the head-on collision you have two cars damaged. One car running into a wall does not have to travel at 40 MPH to experience the same damage as if it had a head-on collision at 20 MPH. Now do you understand?

Originally Posted by Polar Bear

It's not an exercise, it's a basic physics principle.