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Understanding Car Crashes:
It's Basic Physics
Discover how the laws of physics apply to crash tests and help engineers design safer cars to protect occupants in a crash.
Understanding Car Crashes:
When Physics Meets Biology
Explore what happens to the human body in a crash and the scientific principles doctors and engineers use to reduce injuries.
Penny for Your Thoughts on Inertia
about 35 minutes
Use pennies and index cards to explore inertia and the well-known magician's tablecloth trick.
Pain in the Neck
about 50 minutes
Use tennis balls to explore inertia and how to prevent whiplash injuries in rear-end crashes.
Momentum Bashing 1
about 40 minutes
Use inclined ruler ramps to explore how mass affects a marble's "bashing power."
Momentum Bashing 2
about 50 minutes
Use ruler ramps to explore how speed affects a marble's "bashing power."
Egg Crash! Designing a Collision Safety Device
Build a paper landing-pad for a dropped egg to explore how airbags reduce crash forces.
Conservation: It's the Law!
Use marbles and foam pipe insulation "track" to explore where energy "goes" during a collision.
Ball of Energy
about 50 minutes
Throw a tennis ball into the air and collect data to determine impact speed.
Twirling Penny
about 50 minutes
Twirl a penny on a hanger to explore circular motion and how seatbelts and banked roadways protect occupants during turns.
Think Fast, Act Fast
about 40 minutes
Practice catching rulers to calculate reaction time and how far a car travels during a given reaction time.
Distracted Driving Dangers
about 100 minutes
Explore how different distractions affect the time it takes to complete a numbered finger maze.
Stressing Silly Putty
about 100 minutes
Conduct stretch-tests on homemade silly putty to explore how engineers design more realistic crash test dummies.
Stressing Over Pencil Pressure
about 40 minutes
Use pencil push-tests to learn the difference between force and pressure and explore how safety features protect human bodies in a crash.
Paper Car Crash!
about 2 weeks
As a culminating activity option, design, build, and crash an egg-carrying paper car to determine the most crashworthy design.
Project Pedestrian
about 150 minutes
As a culminating engineering activity option, design, build, and test pedestrian-safe bumpers for a toy car using wireless sensors.
Lego IIHS Crash Test
about 2 minutes
Check out a Lego crash test built by an IIHS engineer who works at the Vehicle Research Center.
Crash Science Demos
about 15 minutes
Predict, observe and explain as you watch these crash-science demonstrations.
Inside IIHS
about 40 minutes
Go behind-the-scenes at the IIHS Vehicle Research Center to explore how crash tests and other safety tests are conducted.
Crashworthiness Then and Now
about 15 minutes
Predict, observe and explain the results of a crash between a vintage car and a modern car.
How Can Cars Avoid a Crash?
about 15 minutes
Learn more about the crash avoidance testing program.
Teen Driving Issues
It's tough (and dangerous) to be a beginning driver. Explore the challenges young drivers confront.
Global Crashworthiness
about 15 minutes
Watch this crash test to see why other countries also have new car testing programs.