Question

Imagine that you are designing a small car and you want to make it as safe as possible. There are two ways that you can design the car for a collision. One is to make it so that the car will crumple up (keeping the passenger compartment rigid so they don’t get squashed!) and come to rest along with the other vehicle. The other method is to make the car very rigid so that it will bounce off of the other vehicle. Which method will be safer to use?

A. The crumple method, because the force experienced by the passengers will be less in this case.

B. The crumple method, because the car absorbs all the forces that would otherwise act on the person.

C. The rigid method, because the rigid body sends the forces back to the other car.

D. The rigid method, because the rigid body carries the impulse away from the passengers.

E. Both are equally effective.

Answer 1

B. The crumple method, because the car absorbs all the forces that would otherwise act on the person.

Step-by-step explanation:

The impact forces transmission to passengers needs to be minimized in order to achieve the highest safety level, hence in the case of a collision, car will crumple and absorb most part of that force and will not cause harmful sudden deceleration.