Smashing times were had by Year 10 Science this week when they investigated the Physics of road safety and designed crumple zones. The brief: build the most compact crumple zone that keeps the baby in the car seat. Modern vehicles have crumple zones; effectively, the front of the car is designed to fold up on impact. This disperses the energy from the sudden loss of momentum away from the passengers and can save lives. In our activity, the 'car seat' was a bar magnet, and the 'baby' was a metal ball bearing sitting in front of the magnet.
Carts were pushed into the wall at around 5kph, with a non-crumple zone cart used as a control. Three of 10S's crumple zones absorbed enough impact that the ball bearing was safe. Big congratulations to Carly, Tiana and Lucy for their super compact, springy design. An honorable mention to Matilda, Lavinia, Nikita and Michaela for their super safe, three-layer reinforced, ANCAR 5-star rated bounce bar - though, with a bonnet extension of two meters, parking could be difficult. Well done, team!
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