"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:47614f7d$1@news.povray.org...

>
> I thought a car was supposed to withstand a 120 MPH collision and not
> deform too much...

Not at all. Cars are designed to crumple in accidents, the more the better.

If a car didn't deform at all, then the entire force of the collision would
be applied to the occupants. It would be like hitting the ground at 120
km/hour. It's unlikely you'd survive.

Modern cars are built with crumple zones, so that in an accident portions of
the car (not where the occupants would be sitting) crumple, absorbing some
of the energy of impact, and reducing the effect of the collision on the
occupant.

The crumple reduces the magnitude of the deceleration by stretching out the
time from impact to the time when the vehicle is stationary. A longer
deceleration of lower magnitude means less injury.

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