Mythbusters - Car crash force
Why Physics Stack Exchange recommends it
Physics Stack Exchange users link it as the standard real-world demonstration when someone asks whether two cars at 50 mph equal one car hitting a wall at 100 mph.
Recommended by 0 people across 0 different months, 2011 to 2017.
What it is
A short clip from the MythBusters TV show testing whether a head-on crash between two cars at 50 mph is as damaging as one car hitting an immovable wall at 100 mph. The hosts crash cars both ways and compare the damage. It is a re-upload by a fan channel, not the official show channel.
What people said
Cites horatio · 2011-11 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Classical car collision”
This experiment was actually covered on TV [this video] ( Mythbusters [LINK] ), sans the infinite wall and spherical cows. The damage in the two-car-same-speed collision was consistent with a single car and a wall (speed was not additive) ( Episode 143: Mythssion Control )
Cites smaccoun · 2012-12 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Is two cars colliding at 50mph the same as one car colliding into a wall at 100 mph?”
I was watching a youtube video the other day where an economist said that he challenged his physics professor on this question back when he was in school. His professor said each scenario is the same, while he said that they are different, and he said he supplied a proof showing otherwise. He didn't say whether or not the cars are the same mass, but I assumed they were. To state it more clearly, in the first instance each car is traveling at 50mph in the opposite direction and they collide with each other. In the second scenario, a car travels at 100 mph and crashes into a brick wall. Which one is "worse"? When I first heard it, I thought, "of course they're the same!" But then I took a step
Cites zipzit · 2016-03 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Car Crash Question... (Conservation of Momentum?)”
Mythbusters youtube video, 6 minutes long.... [this video] 50MPH into wall damage = 50MPH Head On Collision damage...
Cites Fogmeister · 2017-04 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Crash simulation on Mythbusters”
I remember an episode [this video] of mythbusters [LINK] where they were busting myths to do with a head on collision between two cars. They said that instead of crashing two cars into each other at 50mph they would crash a car into a stationary object at 100mph because the energy involved in the crash would be the same. Later on they corrected themselves to say that the energy is not the same. But I can't figure out why this would be the case? Can someone explain if these two scenarios are the same or not. And why?