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Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose

seattletimes.nwsource.com

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Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose

#51

Post by tlrobinson »

cryptoz wrote: post #23

This is an incredible story. But I think it's important for everyone to remember the context of who this hero is. He manages the F22 fighter jet program at Boeing. That means that he's in charge of building gigantic killing machines that are only built so that they can be used to kill or threaten to kill human beings. This man did an incredible thing on the road and I'm not trying to diminish that. But he's not a 100…

I know nothing about you, but if I did I'm sure I could find some way you contribute to something I'm morally opposed to.

Do you pay taxes to a country involved in warfare? Do you eat meat? Do you drive a gasoline powered vehicle? Etc etc etc.

Note the above are just examples of things some people are opposed to, not necessarily me personally (in fact I do all of those things)

Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose

#52

Post by gabea »

Periodic wrote: post #40
gabea wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. That part confused me a bit. Was Pace's foot on the accelerator when Innes got out of the car to check on him as well?

Since the car was in gear I wouldn't be surprised if a slow and controlled breaking would cause the engine to stall. He passed out because his circulation was poor, which I take to mean that his foot was resting on the accelerator, not that he was pushing it to floor.

That makes sense.

Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose

#54

Post by WalterBright »

cryptoz wrote: post #23

This is an incredible story. But I think it's important for everyone to remember the context of who this hero is. He manages the F22 fighter jet program at Boeing. That means that he's in charge of building gigantic killing machines that are only built so that they can be used to kill or threaten to kill human beings. This man did an incredible thing on the road and I'm not trying to diminish that. But he's not a 100…

Without effective weapons, many will die. Nobody picks a fight with someone who can effectively fight back.

Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose

#55

Post by robgough »

laut wrote: post #35
astrofinch wrote: post #32

I don't understand how this worked. If Pace's foot was still on the accelerator, wouldn't it be difficult to get his truck to slow down?

Have you ever driven a car with a manual transmission and tried to set off with the handbrake pulled? Brakes can bring a car to standstill even fighting the engine. The brakes in the SUV in front are dimensioned for that SUV and I assume those brakes are not worse than the ones in the truck behind it.

Actually it's not difficult to set off with the handbrake on at all.... That's why so many people do it accidentally. You do feel it though.

Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose

#56

Post by viraptor »

points wrote: post #26
enanoretozon wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not to mention "Without consulting the passengers in his minivan — "there was no time to take a vote" — Innes kicked into engineer mode." more like "Innes kicked into irresponsible mode risking other people's lives to try something he probably saw on a movie"

Come on. The risk was very low. 1. Drive infront 2. Match the speed 3. Slowly reduce speed so that the car behind knocks into your back bumper at a relative speed of like 1 mph. Maybe you feel a tiny bump. 4. Apply brakes Yes it's impressive, but I'd be willing to bet it's not that dangerous at all. The very very worst case scenario is that you don't match the speed very well and get rear ended, which is pretty much…

Ways this could fail:

- breaks are not even across the wheels, he spins and goes right back into the traffic, guy behind falls over after driving the other way into the barrier

- collision affects one of the front wheels of the car behind, that car turns into the traffic - minivan either separates or gets locked due to collision

- engine in minivan stalls after collision, break assist stop working, simply pressing the pedal is not enough to stop both cars

- due to the shape of cars' front and back, the car in the front gets hit and one of the wheels get locked, suddenly breaks; the car in the back has enough kinetic energy to hit and injure passengers sitting in the back

- ... I could go forever

As in other posts above - I don't want to say it was stupid / bad that he tried... It worked, everyone's fine, it's great. But for me, my family in the car is infinitely more important than potential damage that might be caused by an unknown person in an car that's under no control.

Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose

#57

Post by lkjhygtfrghj »

robgough wrote: post #55
laut wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever driven a car with a manual transmission and tried to set off with the handbrake pulled? Brakes can bring a car to standstill even fighting the engine. The brakes in the SUV in front are dimensioned for that SUV and I assume those brakes are not worse than the ones in the truck behind it.

Actually it's not difficult to set off with the handbrake on at all.... That's why so many people do it accidentally. You do feel it though.

the handbrake is a lot less effective than the main brakes. Especialy on cars with all round disks. The handbrake only puts a small brake on the rear axle.

Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose

#58

Post by hugh3 »

zdw wrote: post #17
cperciva wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If my math is right, the kinentic energy of 2 ton vehicle going 40 MPH is roughly equivalent to 70kg of TNT. You're off by a factor of 1000. It's 62.9 grams of TNT: http://www.google.com/search?q=%280.5+*+%2840+mph%29%5E2+*+2...

Ah, my bad. I think the I missed the joule/kilojoule conversion in the reference I was using. Thanks for the correction!

Not to rub it in, but this is one of those cases where a bit of intuition will get you a lot further than a calculation. Is it plausible that a 2 ton vehicle travelling at 40 mph is equivalent to 70 kg of TNT?

Think about the damage done by a crashing minivan. Enough to bend some metal, maybe even knock down a small brick wall. But a 70 kg TNT bomb would easily blow the car into many pieces.

Alternatively, how much fuel does it take to accelerate your van from a standstill to 40 mph? A tiny fraction of a litre, which is why you could do it hundreds of times on a tank of gas. Is that tiny fraction of a litre of gasoline going to be energetically equivalent to 70 kg of TNT?

Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose

#59

Post by noonespecial »

cryptoz wrote: post #23

This is an incredible story. But I think it's important for everyone to remember the context of who this hero is. He manages the F22 fighter jet program at Boeing. That means that he's in charge of building gigantic killing machines that are only built so that they can be used to kill or threaten to kill human beings. This man did an incredible thing on the road and I'm not trying to diminish that. But he's not a 100…

Some people make aluminum rivets. These can be used to make weapons. Now that they know, should they show up for work on Monday if they are "good people"? How about bauxite miners who mine the minerals that are used to make aluminum to make rivets?

Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose

#60

Post by BlazingFrog »

robgough wrote: post #55
laut wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever driven a car with a manual transmission and tried to set off with the handbrake pulled? Brakes can bring a car to standstill even fighting the engine. The brakes in the SUV in front are dimensioned for that SUV and I assume those brakes are not worse than the ones in the truck behind it.

Actually it's not difficult to set off with the handbrake on at all.... That's why so many people do it accidentally. You do feel it though.

Personally I didn't "feel it" that one time, but I did smell it...
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