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Megan
Skeptic Friend
USA
163 Posts |
 Posted - 04/29/2002 : 17:43:34 [Permalink]
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Yeah, it shouldnt be to bad...
I never thought, though, that an airbag could knock that much sense into one's head.....
~Megan~
BTW, I'm a 15 year old that never stops asking questions(=P). |
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Donnie B.
Skeptic Friend
417 Posts |
Posted - 04/29/2002 : 18:25:35 [Permalink]
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Be grateful for that sore chin... a decade ago you would have gone through the windshield. Five decades ago (before safety glass) you might have been decapitated.
Be thankful for the Physics and engineering knowledge that make airbags possible (not to mention the cars themselves) -- and for the social activists who fought Detroit tooth and nail to force them to include that technology in your car.
And get well soon!
-- Donnie B.
Brian: "No, no! You have to think for yourselves!" Crowd: "Yes! We have to think for ourselves!" |
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 04/29/2002 : 20:20:13 [Permalink]
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quote:
You can't get drunk legally here until you are 21. But you can join the army at 17 (parents permission) or 18
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My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations. ---Thomas Henry Huxley, 1860
You can catch a bullet, but you can't catch a buzz.
Lisa
If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room. |
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Stygma
New Member
36 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2002 : 15:26:58 [Permalink]
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Hey, the car seemed to enjoy the collision.
Look, it's still smiling.
If I want your opinion, I'll ask you to fill out the necessary forms. Buh-bye. |
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Megan
Skeptic Friend
USA
163 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2002 : 17:43:53 [Permalink]
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Oh shut up!!
~Megan~
Questions: never leave home without them. |
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ljbrs
SFN Regular
USA
842 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2002 : 19:14:55 [Permalink]
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I am an anathema to tailgaters. If they follow too closely (less than two seconds between vehicles, at least), I leave much more space in front of my car, putting their reaction time in front of me in addition to my reaction time. This only needs to happen in heavy traffic where I am unable to fly over the cars which are impeding my travel. Tailgaters cannot win against me. I try to do it nicely. They have not (so far) gotten the urge to rear-end my car. However, tailgaters are pretty ignorant. If tailgaters know that what they are doing is wrong, then they are not only ignorant, but are stupid as well.
Physics is very nice. When you understand physics, you can stay alive longer by getting out of difficult predicaments.
Accidents can be avoided and, using physics, you can do miracles (which are not miracles at all, but are the result of quick thinking using physics).
It is better to have done the thinking in advance of the potential accident, because you will always have a better chance of avoiding trouble on the road.
Nag, nag, nag, nag, ad infinitum...
ljbrs
"Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error." Goethe |
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Slater
SFN Regular
USA
1668 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2002 : 21:43:48 [Permalink]
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quote:
I am an anathema to tailgaters.
I've always thought that a good tactic would be to keep a realistic toy cat in the car. If a tailgater stayed too close for too long you could toss the cat out the sun roof 
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My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations. ---Thomas Henry Huxley, 1860 |
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Garrette
SFN Regular
USA
562 Posts |
Posted - 05/08/2002 : 03:36:55 [Permalink]
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Why a toy cat, though?
My kids still love me. |
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Megan
Skeptic Friend
USA
163 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2002 : 10:33:33 [Permalink]
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Insurance: A real pisser-offer!
Well, we just got a call on how the insurance on my car:
they are going to raise mine, my dads and Carols insurance to $1,800 for every six months from $500!! Can you frickin believe it!! Carol is going to call the insurance people again to dicker with them if there wasn't a mistake.
Why do I always have to learn everything the hard way?!?!
~Megan~
Questions: never leave home without them. |
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Badger
Skeptic Friend
Canada
257 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2002 : 11:59:50 [Permalink]
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"Insurance: A real pisser-offer!
Well, we just got a call on how the insurance on my car:
they are going to raise mine, my dads and Carols insurance to $1,800 for every six months from $500!! Can you frickin believe it!! Carol is going to call the insurance people again to dicker with them if there wasn't a mistake.
Why do I always have to learn everything the hard way?!?!
~Megan~"
Um, because it sticks better when you learn it the hard way.
Sorry to hear about the insurance scam....I mean premium.
If you think it's work, you're doing it wrong. |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2002 : 12:23:17 [Permalink]
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quote:
"I am an anathema to tailgaters. If they follow too closely (less than two seconds between vehicles, at least), I leave much more space in front of my car, putting their reaction time in front of me in addition to my reaction time..."
ljbrs
I've been known to also simply take my foot off the gas pedal. I'm still moving and no brake lights are on, but I'm gradually slowing down so they get frustrated and pass. Simply braking could get one rear-ended so the gradual slowdown without breaklights is a subtle use of physics to foil the morons. (There are situations where one shouldn't do this.)
Chip
"Speaking without thinking like shooting without aiming." - Charlie Chan |
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Espritch
Skeptic Friend
USA
284 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2002 : 12:54:43 [Permalink]
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quote:
Insurance: A real pisser-offer!
All that remains is for you to start paying taxes. Then you'll understand the true joys of being an adult. 
Stay young as long as you can.
P.S. Glad to hear you weren't seriously hurt.
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2002 : 13:52:48 [Permalink]
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Well Megan, I'm going to be paying more insurance too. Do you like my new toy? Got to write to Eddie and see if he wants Carl to bore the pipes out.
Yeah, I talked to Carol this morning about your situation. She's going to call USAA and point out that she's been with them since like 1977, with a good record. They're really screwing her over for one fender-bender.
Lisa
We have enough youth. We need a fountain of smart. |
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Megan
Skeptic Friend
USA
163 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2002 : 18:59:27 [Permalink]
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Yeah, I'm really hoping that they made a mistake somewhere. And get this, they are saying $1,000 of damage for a dent!!
~Megan~
Questions: never leave home without them. |
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ljbrs
SFN Regular
USA
842 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2002 : 19:36:09 [Permalink]
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Megan:
If I had never studied physics, I would have been KILLED many years ago. It was not the important formula F=ma that saved my life, either. It was *vectors and forces* (baby-first-month physics). I was driving on what turned out to be a re-iced-over previously-salted highway. There was an accident (with police lights flashing) far ahead on the freeway. I was going at freeway speed, because I ignorantly thought that the salt had taken away the icy surface (DUMB). The road had re-iced itself! The brakes of my car would not brake; the steering wheel would turn the wheels but not the car I was driving into another direction and just slipped freely under the car; and I was heading at break-neck speed toward the accident. Then I remembered VECTORS AND FORCES from the first month of my first physics class many, many years before. My immediate problem was to figure how to create a force to turn the car toward the next lane and then to create a force to change back to the direction of traffic flow in the that next lane. I used the steering wheel to make the force in the correct direction, turning it forcefully while being careful not to create a force in bringing it back. I repeated the action over and over again until I reached the next lane of traffic. Then I did everything in the opposite direction to straighten out the car into forward travel in the next lane (thereby avoiding the accident). The passenger in my car still remembers my strange maneuvering. We were both wearing seat belts (a requirement of mine for all passengers in my car). But seat belts, in this case, would not have been enough to avoid significant injury.
Now, the study of vectors and forces in my physics class was many years back in time, but it had stayed with me, ready to be brought instantaneously into life-saving use many years later. That is what physics did for me and what physics can do for anybody. However, I loved physics, so there were no problems with that.
Then again, people who study physics are well aware that F=ma (Force equals mass times acceleration -- a large number at high speeds in a heavy car). Therefore, smart people who drive cars never, ever tailgate. In fact, I am death incarnate on tailgaters, leaving BOTH my stopping time AND the ignorant tailgater's stopping time IN FRONT OF ME, so that WE BOTH HAVE TIME TO STOP, avoiding involvement in one of those stupid little chain accidents that abysmally-ignorant tailgaters regularly have. You see such ignorant accidents all of the time lined up by the side of the highway. It would be an embarrassment for me to be caught in one of those stupid little chain-accident lines.
So work at your physics. Having studied it may save your life someday. Besides, it is great exercise for the brain...
ljbrs
"Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error." Goethe |
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