Invisible wrote:
> Why has nobody yet invented a car door which can be opened half way?
> 
> Every car I've ever seen has hinges which try to force the door fully 
> open or fully closed.

Actually, on further investigation, it seems my car door does have two 
stops. You can have the door shut, 100% open, or 80% open. Which, 
obviously, is no use at all if you want the door 30% open because of the 
car next to you.

(It also seems that might be the reason the door bounces. If you swing 
the door open, the springs try to shut the door until it reaches about 
75% open. Then the springs try to force the door open to 80%. Obviously 
the momentum of the door makes it overshoot this, and it then bounces 
off the end stop.)

Literally, there's so little difference between 80% and 100% that I 
hadn't even noticed until now.

(If you think about it, the distance from the edge of the door to the 
body of the car is equal to the sine of the angle through which the door 

angle. But 80% open is well into the plateau region near the top of the 
sine curve (i.e., the difference between 80% open and 100% open makes 
almost no difference to how badly you just smashed up the car next to you).

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