This lesson is inspired by the recent accident that claimed the life of an 18 year old girl who was a passenger in a vehicle being driven by a 23 year old male who walked away with minor injuries. It seems people don't fully appreciate the responsibility they carry when they are driving with passengers. A driver literally has lives in his hands when he/she has passengers. That boy now has to carry the guilt of being responsible for the death of his friend.
Here is the principal lesson I wish to convey: The amount of kinetic energy your vehicle has is not linearly proportional to your speed, it is in fact exponential. It follows this equation: KE = 1/2 * mass * velocity squared. Still not following? That's ok. I'll show you how it works.
Say for example you are driving along in your medium sized car at 85 KPH. That would give you a kinetic energy of 334 kj (kilojoules). The same car going just 35 KPH fast, 120 KPH has 667 kj of energy. That's almost DOUBLE. Double the kinetic energy for only a 35 KPH speed increase. If you have a problem with these numbers, take it up with Newton. He figured it out a few hundred years ago and we ended up sending people to the moon using it.
So if you think that hitting a moose at 120 KPH is no different than 85 KPH, well you are dead wrong (or maybe your passenger is).
Story Here.
No comments:
Post a Comment