If you are in a car that is struck from behind, you can recieve a serious neck injury called whiplash.?

Question

A) Using Newton's Laws of Motion, explain what happens.

B) How does a headrest reduce whiplash?

Answer 1

Think of your head as being attached to your body by a spring. So, it can move indpendently (and have its own inertia) of the body.

That should help visualize what happens.

Answer 2

So I am to assume that you know F=ma so you need to understand that even if the car doing the hitting is going just a few mph it is going to hit with a great amount of force. So that being said lets go to the second (or maybe third) law that states that every action causes an equal and "opposite" reaction. So when the car strikes your vehicle there is a great amount of force that is directed at your car. A good amount of the force and energy is transfered throughout the car so your body doesn't necessarily absorb all of the impact (that is why cars have "crumple zones"). Now understand it is not your neck which is of concern it is the head that rest on that neck. When the force gets to your body your body flies forward but if you head is unrestrained then it will go backwards. That in turn places an incredible strain on your neck which is whiplash.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

oh man. I was doing all right until you through in that A & B. B should be self evident. You're whip doesn't lash as far. Probably number one offender to insurance companys or at least in the top ten. Don't know much about Sir Isaac Newton. Gravity wasn't it? Please forgive my rambling and have a good day.