Re: Driver Skills

Posted by Craig Hendrickson On 2009/5/19 15:50:12

Keith, you make an excellent point. Today's drivers usually have no concept of the basic physics involved, i.e., momentum and energy.

Momentum being mass times velocity, so the more mass the more momentum at the same speed, i.e., heavy cars take longer to stop all things being equal.

Energy being mass times energy squared, so double the speed, quadruple the energy. Going faster takes much more "reaction time" and a lot more energy dissipation than less speed. And brakes have to dissipate energy, not momentum.

If people did understand this, they would slow down or at least follow at a farther distance.

Craig

P.S. Most people want to "save the planet", but will not take a physics course...or a driver's ED course, for that matter.