![]() NASCAR relies on a transponder located near the frame rails (low) in the car. (Remember that the problem with concussion is that the brain actually hits the inside of the skull.) Especially given the increasing concern about concussion, Ind圜ar and F1 have both provided drivers with a tiny accelerometer that fits into the ear and thus gives a much more accurate measurement of the actual acceleration of the head. As far as I know, NASCAR hasn’t instituted in-ear accelerometers like Ind圜ar.Īn accelerometer is exactly what is sounds like: a meter for acceleration. I’m pretty sure the numbers Kyle had were the numbers from the car’s transponder. So don’t interpret what I’m going to say as trying to say he’s lying or wrong or is trying to exaggerate his injury. He had a really hard crash and broke bones in both legs. How Many G’s Can a Person Withstand?Īgain, this is by no means meant to minimize Kyle’s experience. ![]() Important: Although Earth’s gravity pulls down (toward the center of the Earth), we use ‘G’ to measure acceleration in any direction: up or down, back or forth, or sideways. I can measure the acceleration you feel on a rollercoaster in Gs. I can measure the acceleration when you step on the gas after stopping at a red light in ‘G’s. Likewise, we can use the unit ‘G’ to express the acceleration of anything. I can express anything in terms of dozens: a dozen eggs, a dozen jellybeans or a dozen beers. We use the unit ‘G’ just like a unit like ‘dozen’. Remember F-ma? When you experience ’3Gs’ of acceleration, the force you experience is the number of G’s times your weight. Weight is the force resulting from the acceleration. A good rollercoaster will give you 2-3G.Įlectronics spec’ed for the military for use in shells have to survive 15,000 G. I’ve got a story in the Physics of NASCAR book about Texas Motor Speedway having to cancel an open-wheel race at the last moment because the drivers were pulling so many Gs that they were having mini blackouts. A Formula 1 car pulls about 5-6 G laterally during sharp turns and 4-5G during linear acceleration. The Space Shuttle pulled 3G on launch, Apollo 16 pulled 7G on re-entry. I did the math, just thought I’d throw that in.) (which, by the way does may the Etihad towers jump possible. It’s an acceleration of a little more than 1G. Every second, your speed increases by 22.4 mph. If you go from 0 to 62 mph in 2.8 seconds (like the Lykan HyperSport in the Furious 7 Movie), you’ve got an acceleration of 22.4 mph each second. The product of your mass times the acceleration due to gravity is your weight.Īcceleration is how fast you change speed. One ‘G’ is equal to the acceleration of any object due to Earth’s gravity. The ‘G’ is quite possibly the most misunderstood unit in racing. Warning – I wrote and researched this while flying halfway across the country, so we’re likely to need a re-write when I get back home Monday and have a little more time to make this prettier. Trying to quantify a crash via one number is a nice attempt at simplifying things, but totally wrong. My twitter was flooded with people asking “90Gs? No one could survive that kind of a hit.” Kyle said he left the track at 176 mph, hit at 90 mph and sustained 90 Gs. ![]() And best wishes to Kyle to get well soon. The fact that he remembers so much about the crash is amazing – it will be a great boon to the safety people who probably will use this as a case study in the future. Listening to Kyle Busch’s press conference Wednesday was alternately fascinating and cringe-worthy.
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