just a thread bump. Like to keep some discussion going on this. I at least expect some kind of response from Clive....
A friendly response from me, yes, as I too want to keep a lively discussion going.
With your example of an airplane, you introduce gravity into the equation, but since in a routine traffic accident a bus is already on the ground, the force of gravity pulling it towards the ground has no "impact" on the situation, pardon the pun. It's a spurious argument to say that the mass of an airplane would help protect people in a plane crash ... it's not comparing apples to apples because the effects of gravity on a previously airborne object changes things dramatically. The forces of gravity trump just about anything else. WHat goes up must come down. BOOM. Sadly, end of story most of the time.
Let me present my "mass" argument in a very different manner, at first.
Let's use toddlers as an example. If you have 2 little kids running full-speed into each other, or one running full-speed into another child who's standing still, both kids are really going to be jarred by the ensuing impact. They will both be very affected by it.
No let's consider a toddler running full-speed into your leg. The toddler might get hurt, but you won't even wobble. That's because you are so much more massive than the toddler.
It's the same with motor vehicle accidents. When two cars (toddlers) hit each other, it can be a terrible scene. But when a car (toddler) hits a bus (grown up) or vice versa, the car gets badly damaged and the bus isn't nearly as badly affected. The mass of the bus absorbs more of the kietic energy, and thus there is less kinetic energy left to be passed on to the objects and people inside the passenger compartment.
If a bus drives 80 mph into a solid wall, of course it will be terrible result, because the force (kinetic energy) will be more than the mass of the bus can bear. But I don't hear about buses driving into walls that often.
If a car and a bus have a head-on collision, the car will come to a dead stop (pun kind of intended) and might even be thrown or pushed backwards. The bus will not come to a dead stop. It would be jolted, but the occupants won't be subject to the full force of the cradh the way the car was.
So riddle me this -- if large buses aren't safer, then why aren't seat belts mandatory like they are (most places) for cars? I can't imagine that they motorcoach manufacturing industry or Greyhound are so powerful that they can sway a majority of legislators' votes in state houses and in Congress.
