Mechanics Project - Automobile Safety
Your project involves the analysis of automobile safety & automobile collisions.
You will evaluate automobile collisions in terms of physics concepts such as momentum, energy,
force, impulse, vectors, velocity, acceleration, displacement, torque, and principles such as
Newton's laws, conservation laws, momentum-impulse equation, and the work-energy theorem.
You will choose a safety feature on today’s automobiles and evaluate its usefulness in preventing
injury to passengers or accidents. You will explain its effectiveness in terms of the physics
concepts listed above.
You will present your findings in one of three formats:
o An infomercial advertising your safety feature
o A brochure detailing your chosen safety feature
o A written report describing your safety feature
YOUR PROJECT IS DUE ON Tuesday APRIL 12th
You may turn them in either electronically or via hard copy.
Detailed requirements for each of the three project formats:
1. infomercial - Your infomercial must be between 5-10 minutes long. It must include information
on automobile collisions and on your safety feature. You must try to ‘sell’ your safety feature as
a good idea and support it with at least 3 valid and researched arguments in terms of physics
concepts. The credits must include a bibliography with at least 3 different sources. You may
use ‘actors’ for your infomercial.
2. brochure - Your brochure must be on a standard, 8 x 11 sheet of paper folded into three
sections. All sections must contain some type of writing or illustration. Your brochure must be
colorful and aesthetically pleasing. Your brochure must present your research on automobile
collisions in a technical, but understandable format. It must also include your research on your
safety feature. You may either support or discredit the use of your safety feature, but you must
do so with at least 3 valid and researched arguments in terms of physics concepts. You must
include a separate bibliography that includes at least 3 different sources.
3. written report - Your report must be at least 5 complete pages (not including the
bibliography), double spaced, in a 12 point font with no more than 1 inch margins. You must
describe in detail the physics behind car collisions. You may either support or discredit the use
of your safety feature, but you must do so with at least 3 valid and researched arguments in
terms of physics concepts. You must include at least one paragraph on the history of
automobile safety and the changes in safety features over time. You must include a
bibliography that includes at least 3 different sources.