The human body can survive a negative acceleration trauma incident (sudden stop) if the magnitude of the acceleration is less than (m/s2)
If you are in an automobile accident with an initial speed of 101(km/h) and are stopped by an airbag that inflates from the dashboard, over what distance must the airbag stop you for you to survive the crash?
x= m
To solve this problem, we need to find the distance (x) over which the airbag must stop you in order to survive the crash. We can do this by using the equation for motion with uniform acceleration:
v² = u² + 2as
Where:
v = final velocity (0 m/s, because you come to a stop)
u = initial velocity (101 km/h converted to m/s)
a = acceleration (negative, as the car is decelerating)
s = distance
First, let's convert the initial velocity from km/h to m/s:
101 km/h = 101 * (1000 m/3600 s) ≈ 28.06 m/s
Now, we can plug the values into the equation and solve for s:
0² = (28.06 m/s)² + 2a * s
Since the acceleration is not given, we need additional information to proceed. The question mentions that the human body can survive a negative acceleration trauma incident if the magnitude of the acceleration is less than a certain value (m/s²). We need to know the exact value of this magnitude to proceed with the calculation.
Once the magnitude of the acceleration is known, we can rearrange the equation to solve for s:
s = (0² - (28.06 m/s)²) / (2 * a)
Substituting the value of a, we can calculate the distance s, which is the answer to the question.