Letter to Sixteen-Year-Old Driver

            Lethal car accidents happen every day. Most people blame the cause on reckless or drunken drivers. Although this may be true, there is also the physical science behind every car accident. The science revolves around Newton’s three laws of motion. Any sixteen year old can avoid these fatal crashes by knowing these three simple laws and applying them to the car they are driving.

            The first law states that an object at rest tends remain at rest, and an object in motion tends to remain in motion unless acted upon by another force. When a car in is motion, it will remain in motion if a force is pushing it. If there is no force, the car’s own momentum will continue that motion. However, the three forces of friction, air, and often gravity will slowly bring the car to a rest. If the car is still in motion, and it collides with an object of unequal motion or direction, then the homo-sapiens within the colliding cars will cease its life. In simpler terms, if you make the car go faster, it will move. If you let go of the accelerator, it will still move, although not indefinitely. The invisible force that pushes the car when it is not moving is called momentum. If the car hits something, even when the accelerator has been released, everyone in the car will probably die- killed by momentum. The only way to stop the car “manually” is to apply the brakes. Therefore, always be prepared to hit the brakes when you feel that you are about to collide into something.

            Newton’s second law of motion states that force is equal to mass times acceleration. When a one-ton dragster moves, it tends to have greater acceleration than other cars. The acceleration compensates for the low mass to produce an extremely large force. A larger force will be more difficult to stop than a smaller force. The same principle applies for the cars that sixteen year olds drive. A sedan driving at 85 mph will be much more difficult to brake to a halt than that same car traveling at 55 mph. Therefore, driving faster than the average speed will increase your chances of crashing.

            Newton’s third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This law explains why people get injured or killed in car crashes. When you hit another car at 60 mph, that car flies into the air, and you stay on the ground. However, you still get injured from the reaction of the action. When you hit that car, that car also hits you, and with the same force. So although it may look like the other car is taking all the casualties, you are also injuring yourself, and with the same magnitude of damage. Therefore, always be careful when driving close to other cars at high speeds.

            You have covered Newton’s three laws of motion and how they apply to your world of motor transportation. The first law states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest, and an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless it is acted upon by another force. To a sixteen year old, this means always be prepared to brake the car when you feel that you are about to crash into another object. Force is equal to mass times acceleration. This means that traveling faster than the rest of the cars around you will increase your chances of crashing and killing yourself. For every action is an equal and opposite reaction. Always be careful when driving close to other cars at high speeds. Driving a car can be very safe or dangerous, depending on how important you consider Newton’s three laws of motion to be.

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