Why do peoples shoes fly off their feet when they get hit by a car?
- Thread starter Uncle Meat
- Start date
For the same reason that your baby isn’t safe in your arms in a crash.
A crash imposes dozens, hundreds, even thousands of times the force of gravity on the body. And typically the initial impact and acceleration is followed by another sudden deceleration as the body is slammed into a wall, a parked car, a crowd of other people, etc.
Put another way: imagine your shoes weigh 1 pound. No big deal.
But get in a wreck where you are subject to 200g’s acceleration, now your shoes weigh 200 pounds. No way are they staying on your feet. Those figures are probably a least-case scenario, real world numbers are probably a lot worse.
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A crash imposes dozens, hundreds, even thousands of times the force of gravity on the body. And typically the initial impact and acceleration is followed by another sudden deceleration as the body is slammed into a wall, a parked car, a crowd of other people, etc.
Put another way: imagine your shoes weigh 1 pound. No big deal.
But get in a wreck where you are subject to 200g’s acceleration, now your shoes weigh 200 pounds. No way are they staying on your feet. Those figures are probably a least-case scenario, real world numbers are probably a lot worse.
Sent from my iPhone using svtperformance.com
Body out-accelerates footwear?The Corvette forum didn't have an answer for this, but suggested I'd get better results over here.
U.M.
When your shoes fly off it is just a symbol that you are dead!
I C wut u did there.....The Corvette forum didn't have an answer for this, but suggested I'd get better results over here.
U.M.
Loafers, - " are flat leather shoes with no straps or laces "
.
.
Made by small Asian children?
Leathery?
Sweaty?
Smelly?
With a tongue?
Laced up?
In pairs?
Tight and at my feet.
Several here on the right track. There are a number of factors depending on the dynamics of a crash that can cause one to fly out of their shoes. One I don't see is if a pedestrian is walking, most likely they have more weight on one foot than the other. The shoe is "planted" when the force of the collision pulls the foot out. I have seen laces broken and not broken. I have seen cowboy boots stay on and lace up boots come off. Sometimes one shoe, sometimes both, sometimes neither.
When I first started riding a motorcycle, I forced myself to watch hours and hours of motorcycle crash videos on Youtube to force myself to ride responsibly and what to watch for. (I thought I was going to be far less responsible on a bike at first). There were plenty of pedestrian-struck-by-motorcyclist videos mixed in there.
In a totally elastic collision, the kinetic energy of all contacted bodies remains the same as prior to the collision. Of course that's nearly impossible, since friction, noise, plastic deformation, etc are all part of a typical collision. In many scenarios, the smaller object is accelerated faster than the maximum speed of either body during the collision due to conservation of energy. It's usually the case when deformation isn't extreme (Crumple zones are designed for this), so that energy has to go somewhere. While accelerating, the body isn't rigid- it ragdolls, causing extremities to whip. This depends on the impact position relative to a centroid and/or anchoring point to create a moment (either causing spinning or a shove motion). That impulse from whipping is what causes shoes to fly off, helmets to come off, and in some cases limbs to be torn partially or completely off. There are too many factors involved in a crash to make the statement that shoes always fly off- it's probably just a certain window of variables that allows that to happen. Most people don't tie and untie their shoes when taking them on and off, so their laces are relatively loose.
Most roller-coasters operate in < 3Gs. Extreme ones get upwards of 6Gs. That's enough to launch your shoes off, which is why most of them have "catch nets" installed in the tangent vector of nasty curves / camel-hills / corkscrews above walkways. A 30mph car accident can be 30Gs. A 100mph car accident can be 180Gs. It all depends on how fast deceleration / acceleration occurs. Granted, that insane G-force is very momentary, but that's where the damage happens.
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So....don’t wear shoes.
Noted.
Noted.
I'm normally in cowboy boots. If I lose one in a crash, something went wrong in a bad way.
Bring my boot and foot back, please.
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Bring my boot and foot back, please.
Sent from my [mind] using the svtperformance.com mobile app
Shoes comes off for the same reason they come off if you kick with loosely tied shoes and your shoe flies off....physics.
I train athletes of all levels and the "in" trend for amateurs is to lace up their shoes loose so I see shoes flying almost daily with forces way less than a car hitting someone. This generation is full of idiots like no generation prior.
I train athletes of all levels and the "in" trend for amateurs is to lace up their shoes loose so I see shoes flying almost daily with forces way less than a car hitting someone. This generation is full of idiots like no generation prior.
LMAO
That's tomorrow's leaders you're speaking about!
*busts out laughing*
*slowly transitions to full on crying*
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