{"id":119936,"date":"2021-04-06T23:11:18","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T23:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=119936"},"modified":"2021-04-06T23:11:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T23:11:18","slug":"a-71km-h-impact-the-physics-behind-the-car-stuck-in-orchard-crates-in-hastings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/a-71km-h-impact-the-physics-behind-the-car-stuck-in-orchard-crates-in-hastings\/","title":{"rendered":"A 71km\/h impact? The physics behind the car stuck in orchard crates in Hastings"},"content":{"rendered":"
A car that ended up lodged between five and 10 metres off the ground in a pile of orchard crates in Hastings would have left the ground at a speed of at least 71km\/h, a<\/span> physics expert says.<\/span><\/p>\n A man in his 20s suffered serious injuries after the single-car crash on Kenilworth Rd, Mayfair, about 12.30am on Sunday. He remained in hospital in a stable condition today.<\/p>\n Police said a car failed to stop for officers after it was spotted driving at speed on the wrong side of Karamu Rd, Hastings.<\/p>\n The car fled police down Kenilworth Rd, before hitting a patch of gravel at the base of the railway lines and becoming “airborne”, according to police. Police said they were not in pursuit at the time of the crash.<\/p>\n Witnesses described the sound of a “half a second skid” and then a “bang”.<\/p>\n Police said the point of impact was 10 metres off the ground.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n University of Auckland head of physics professor Jan Eldridge said to reach a height of 10 metres the car would have needed to be travelling at least 71km\/h, but was likely going faster.<\/p>\n Eldridge said to get 10m high, the car would need to have an upwards velocity after hitting the train tracks.<\/p>\n “To work that out, I conserve energy setting the required gravitational energy to the kinetic energy and this gives me a required upward speed of 14 metres per second,” she said.<\/p>\n “The car wasn’t going fully ‘up’, but at a 45 degree angle to the ground after hitting the track, this means it was going faster as it was going up and forwards.”<\/p>\n Eldridge added: “It probably was higher than 71 km\/h, but not that much higher as it depends how much damage the impact between the car and the tracks did as that can use up a lot of energy.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yummy Apples general manager Paul Paynter said the stack of apple bins, which are estimated to be 1.5m, are “like a giant building”.<\/p>\n “The stack would be about eight or nine bins high and similar depth \u2013 so the reason they didn’t fall over is because there is a whole lot of them backed up behind,” he said.<\/p>\n “Each weighs about 75kg so if you’ve got stacks of eight or nine of those high and deep, it’s a pretty sturdy stack to crash into.”<\/p>\n Paynter said there would have also certainly been a fatality if the bins had been full of apples.<\/p>\n Fellow University of Auckland department of physics professor Richard Easther said the car would’ve been going at least 100km\/h.<\/p>\n “Once the car gets airborne, it’s a classic example of projectile motion. If you’re jumping straight up, you need to leave the ground at 50km\/hr to get 10m in the air,” he said.<\/p>\n “But he was clearly moving relative to the ground, so we need both the vertical and horizontal components of his speed. If he went up a 30 degree bank, he would need to have been doing closer to 100km\/h as he left the ground.”<\/p>\n “Whatever number you landed on, very fast is going to be a good answer here.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Police say they are continuing to investigate the circumstances of the crash. No charges have been laid.<\/p>\nWhy the bins didn't fall like dominoes<\/h2>\n
Another view: At least 100km\/h?<\/h2>\n