Re: Momentum

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>]

> > The original question was whether a head-on collision between two cars,
> > each going 35 mph, was equivalent to a car hitting a tree at 70 mph.
> >  The answer is no.  The collision between two cars each going 35 mph is
> > more equivalent to a car hitting a tree at 35 mph.
>
> A curious thing to me is how hard we jump on something that *almost*
> correct.  According to the parenting advice we follow, if one of my kids
> had suggested this I would have started by praising them for knowing
> about relativity of motion and would have then sought to show them where
> the error lay in their application.

I have to disagree with you, Doug. The original questioner recognizes
that the 70 mph number is, at best, a factor of two greater than is
justified by the physics (zero tree compliance, zero difference in the
details of cruplability). This is hyperbole (read "exaggeration" if
you have a linguistically challenged dictionary) of the worst sort -
bad science masquerading as trustworthy authority. I'm on the side of
the original poster here. Bad science makes the public distrust all
science and scientists. It's bad for all of us.

Leigh