Accidents can be deadly and life-threatening. In many cases, the victims end up in a coma or suffer severe consequences. Automobile industries created airbags to mitigate car accidents and decrease the number of injuries on the victim. It was first introduced in 1971 by the Ford Motor Company and successfully saved around 50,457 souls in the US alone who witnessed such horrific events.
Contents
Physics Of Car Impact
Suppose your car is moving at a speed of 60 mph. You have your seat belt on and get a jerk ahead when the vehicle moves, as your body tends to be in motion with the car. Everything seems fine, but after a few minutes, you, unfortunately, hit a truck. When this happens, the vehicle moving at 60 mph suddenly becomes stationary due to the moving truck.
Despite the car’s sudden drop down, its velocity decreases from 60 mph to 0 mph. When this happens, your body is still in the motion in which the car was, i.e., it follows Newton’s second law of motion. Newton’s second law states that the body will come at rest until an external force is applied to it. When the car’s speed slows down immediately, the speed of your body remains the same. Therefore, your body moves in a relative motion leading to impact on the steering wheel, causing bleeding or fracture, and sometimes death.
How Can Airbags Mitigate Anti-Impact Effects?
To prevent your head from being hit on the steering wheel, the airbags act as a shock absorbent. Thus, when you are about to impact the steering wheel, an opposition force is applied by the airbag as it inflates, thereby decreasing the consequences of the heavy impact. Furthermore, the airbags provided a cushioned material. Thus, your head will not collide with the steering wheel’s hard surface but instead comfort you like a soft cushion surface, which means that your body’s speed will decrease gradually and not suddenly.
How Does The Airbag Inflate In The Event Of Accidents?
The whole airbag system comprises a circuit, an accelerometer, a heating substance, a triggering explosive, and the airbag. The mechanism is simple, first, when the car is hit by a truck or a tree trunk, the accelerometer records the event and sends a signal to the circuit. A heating element receives this signal, and then it becomes hot like an oven. The heating element raises the temperature, which leads to an explosion caused by the ignition of sodium azide (NaN3). As the gas expands at high temperatures, it traverses in the airbag, which inflates it. The whole mechanism takes place in microseconds; therefore, one can safely rely on it to protect them.
Can The Type Of Body Affect The Airbag’s Mitigation Of Shock Impact?
The National Library of Medicine study suggested that weight did not play a factor, whereas height did. The probability of mitigating injuries had been relatively increasing in taller people. Later on, they found that airbag failures were more in regions of hot and humid climates such as Texas. Overall, there were very few incidents where airbags caused death instead of mitigating it, and so one can always rely on airbags in case of tragic events like a head-on collision. Over the years, the technology behind airbags has become much more advanced, leading to less airbag failure and more lives saved.
Conclusion
Car accidents are serious, and we put our lives at risk everyday driving on the road. Airbags are an innovation that has saved lives and also reduced injuries in car accident victims. Next time you drive, put on your seatbelt and thank your airbags for potentially being your lifesaver.
