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Re: momentum



Henry Kuhlman writes:

In the Cover Story of the Wed 30 June 99 USA Today, Edward Moeller, a
traffic engineer is quoted, "If you are driving 35 and hit someone coming
at you at 35, it's the equivilent of hitting a tree at 70."

Any hope of correcting this WRONG PHYSICS?


Am I missing something? It seems that we can take any inertial frame of
reference to analyze this case, including one where the other car is at
rest and my car is approaching it at 70 mph.

Of course hitting a car at 70 mph and hitting a tree at 70 mph are
entirely different things -- is this the error you are referring to?

Dave

David J. Hamilton, Ed.D. * And gladly woulde he learn,
Portland Public Schools * and gladly teche.
djhamil@teleport.com * - Chaucer