After World War II the U.S. Air Force carried out experiments on the amount of acceleration a human can survive. These experiments, led by John Stapp, were the first to use crash dummies as well as human subjects, especially Stapp himself, who became an effective advocate for automobile safety belts. In one of the experiments, Stapp rode a rocket sled that decelerated from 140 m/s (about 310 mi/h) to 70 m/s in just 0.6 s.
(a) What was the absolute value of the (negative) average
acceleration?
m/s2
(b) The acceleration of a falling object if air resistance is
negligible is 9.8 m/s/s, called "one g." What was the absolute
value of the average acceleration in g's? (Stapp eventually
survived a test at 46 g's!)
g
After World War II the U.S. Air Force carried out experiments on the amount of acceleration...
3. The Air Force has conducted many studies on the effects of large accelerations on the human body. In one such study, Lt. Col. John L. Stapp rode a rocket sled that started from rest and attained a speed of 280 m/s in 5 s. The sled was then brought to rest in 1.5 s. What acceleration did Lt. Col. Stapp experience in the first 5 s? How far did the sled travel during this time? What acceleration was experienced...
In World War II, there were several reported cases of airmen who jumped from their flaming airplanes with no parachute to escape certain death. Some fell about 21,161 feet (6450 m), and some of them survived, with few life threatening injuries. For these lucky pilots, the tree branches and snow drifts on the ground allowed their deceleration to be relatively small. If we assume that a pilot's speed upon impact was 116 mph (52 m/s), then what was his deceleration...