How Does A Seat Belt Prevent Newton's Laws Of Motion From Taking Full Effect?

Mechanics Project As technology progressed, so did the safety features provided in vehicles. Initially, cars didn't have seat belts or airbags, which made collisions more lethal than today. Because of traffic fatalities, car companies began studying physics in order to create better, safer vehicles. One of these innovations was the seat belt. The seat belt was added to cars in 1955 by Volvo. Since then, seat belts have become standard equipment in every automobile, but this doesn’t mean the seat belt was perfect when it was first introduced. Obviously, any type technology has occasional issues. For example, seat belts are occasionally come undone during collisions, or cause other types of harm. Seat belts used to be thicker, which distributed

This led to chest injuries, lacerations, and even decapitation. Now, seat belts are made out of thinner, less solid material, which causes the energy and force distribution to cause less harm to people. While these issues still occur, the seat belt is still the safest option for vehicles. Without it, the momentum and force caused by the collision would make the driver, or passengers to accelerate through the windshield of the car. Ultimately, the person in the vehicle would most likely die. So, how does physics explain the effectiveness of the seat belt and its potential problems? Whittaker 2

First, how does a seat belt prevent Newton’s Laws of Motion from taking full effect? The three laws are: An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted by an unbalanced force. Second, acceleration is produced when a force acts on a mass. The greater the mass, the greater amount of force needed to accelerate the object. Third, for every reaction there is an equal and

Momentum is motion of body measured by its mass and velocity, or P=m*v. Next, energy is the ability to produce change in an environment. Impulse is a force acting on a body and producing a change of momentum. The equation for impulse is: FΔt = p2 - p1. Force is simply something that causes change in the direction of an object, or F=m*a. Acceleration is the speed at which an object accelerates, which is directly correlated to velocity. Both of these describe the speed of an object. You can find acceleration and velocity with this equation: v = v0 + at. So, how does a seat belt prevent momentum, energy, impulse, force, acceleration, and velocity from acting on person? When are car crashes in a head on or rear collision, the momentum produced by the accident causes the person to move forward in the direction of the collision. The seat belt, which is placed over the person's shoulder prevents the person from flying forward, but doesn’t lower the momentum. Instead, the momentum and energy produced by the accident are distributed throughout the seat belt. In turn, this can save the person. Also, the impulse caused by the accident is distributed differently with a seat belt. Without a seat belt, the impulse is spread out quickly, which causes much higher force. The seat belt spreads the impulse out over more time, so the force acting the person is less lethal. In both situations the force is same,