zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

Hi Guys,

If anyone saw Michael Schumachers crash at the UK Grand Prix a few years ago has to ask how he survived.

He hit a wall head on, going flat out & broke one leg.

I remember reading a report on the various G forces. Basically his car stopped from about 150 mph to 0 in 2 feet. That is an enourmous amount of G-force. ( basically enough to pulverise most of your internal organs )

There are various factors that saved his live , he hit rubber tyres, that cushioned the blow, the car has a "crumplezone" designed to fold up & reduce the G passed onto the driver & the seat belts stretched (as they were designed to do ).

I found a website describing a car crash at 30 mph & what the seatbelts should do.

Seatbelts in a car crash . Don't worry it is NOT graphic, just factual.

So what does this Off Topic waffle tell us ? ( my post I mean )....

a 30 mph crash into a solid object would subject you to 150 G ( without a belt ) & 20 G WITH a belt.

The figure being quoted in this thread is 5000 G. does that equate to 1000 mph ? ( I know Dell has asked in G is linear - I don't know ).

Finally, I'm sure the human body CAN survive more than 9 G's ( for a VERY short period of time ), but I think at 9 G's most of us black out.

Don't we have an physics specialists in the forum ?

S.