Biking is much more fun than electronics, especially as summer is icumen in, but do you youngsters *know* about it?
E.g. you know that its a lot more fun discharging a small 370V capacitor than a *huge* 5V one because energy is proportional to the voltage *squared* (because if you double voltage then the current doubles too and energy is their product)because Energy = CV^2
I ------------- | | | | V | Energy | | | | | | | -------------
The same thing applied to speed. If you double the speed you quaduple the energy because Energy = MV^2
So if you hit a massive artic' while doing 1 mph (the lorry is stationary) on yer bike then (assuming you weight "one" unit) you will dissipate one unit of energy.
If you hit the same vehicle at 101 mph when it is doing 100 mph then, ignoring the lorry's slight speed increase, you will dissipate the difference between you doing 101 and 100 i.e.
101*101 - 100*100 == ~200That's nearly 200 hundred times more dangerous.
Wazzat? ya don't believe it? (The local boy racer is reading this over my shoulder, he is snorting disbelief). Well if you prefer a belief system to a mathematical system then look at it this way: How much energy do you have to put it to get ya bike up to 1 mph? Not much, you just start pushing it and after a couple of strides both of you are up to 1 mph but what about 100 to 101? First of all you have to *be* running at 100 *before* you start pushing and *then* you must push and get it to 101. The ground you have to cover *while* pushing is evidently a hellofalot more. Does that not seem like a *lot* more stored energy to you?
Cheers
Robin Pain (ouch)