Upon impact, bicycle helmets compress, thus lowering the potentially dangerous acceleration experienced by the head. A new kind

Question

3 months ago

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Upon impact, bicycle helmets compress, thus lowering the potentially dangerous acceleration experienced by the head. A new kind

of helmet uses an airbag that deploys from a pouch worn around the rider's neck. In tests, a headform wearing the inflated airbag is dropped from rest onto a rigid platform; the speed just before impact is 6.00 m/s. Upon impact, the bag compresses its full 12.0 thickness, slowing the headform to rest.
Required:
Determine the acceleration of the head during this event, assuming it moves the entire 12.0 cm.

Physics

1 answer:

serg [3.5K] · Answer 1 · 2026-02-19T22:07:18+03:00

Answer:

acceleration = -15.3g

Explanation:

provided data

speed = 6.00 m/s.

thickness = 12

extends the full = 12.0 cm

solution

We will utilize the following equation:

v² - u² = 2 × a × s ........................1

where v = 0 is the final velocity, u = 6.0 m/s is initial velocity, and s= 0.12 m is the distance traveled; a denotes acceleration.

Substituting the values yields the acceleration:

a = $\frac{v^2-u^2}{2s}$

a = $\frac{0^2-6^2}{2\times 0.12}$

a = -150 m/s² (the negative indicates deceleration)

and

acceleration in g units

a = $\frac{-150}{9.8}$

a = -15.3 g