Car Crash + Physics - The Vow (2012) Discussion

[–] JW-7 12 years ago

Good point, but didn't the rear-ender then cause them to go forward into a pole or something? I don't remember exactly, but I think that's what caused her to go thru the front window.

And good thing the window is made of spun sugar, so that it didn't cut her seriously or anything, but just gave her a couple of minor shallow cuts right below the hairline.

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[–] mikeyflatley 12 years ago

not 2 mention a sweet toof

I live, I love, I slay, and I'm content

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[–] shellyduck 12 years ago

Yes the truck hit from behind which caused their car to move forward into a light pole. She had taken her seat belt off at the stop sign.

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[–] Phoenix_13 12 years ago

It was the impact with the power pole that the salt truck pushed them into which caused the forward motion of the car to stop and her to go through the windshield.

I'm not an accident reconstruction expert, but I have to wonder if their velocity at impact was enough to send a real person through the windshield. Smack their head against it and cause a spiderweb crack on the windshield and a concussion on her, sure, but through the windshield? I think that requires higher speed at impact.

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[–] JW-7 12 years ago

That's the least of its problems. You've just gotta accept that it is possible, so you can then get to the rest of the movie's problems, which have to do with casting, script motivation, etc.

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[–] ImpulseControlled 12 years ago

The truck smashed into them, sending them pressed back against the seats. There was a lot of forward motion pushing them back, just as you said. However, then they hit a pole. And that brought them to an abrupt stop, but the two of them still had the forward motion, so she went flying forward, through the windshield

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[–] JW-7 12 years ago

Someone in another thread said this made him laugh. Can you imagine?

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[–] brandonmalbert 12 years ago

??? Did you take physics in school. If a truck slams into the back of you the force will knock you forward. The only way she would have gone through the rear window would be if they were driving backwards and slammed into a still car.

If a car is going forward, and hits a car that's still the force will force you in the same direction, FORWARD

Try this, stand up and stand still. Have somebody run into you from behind and push you, guess which way you fall.

"Hell yea I punch my bitch, and beat my kids in public" "EMINEM

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[–] tspanton 12 years ago

You almost have it right. The truck hits the car which pushes it forward. The body is not moving or relative to the car the body is thrown back. Then when the car hits the pole, the car stops. The body keeps moving and goes through the windshield.

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[–] megdownthehatch 12 years ago

You must have skipped the day you talked about inertia. You were mostly right. Because of the head rest and the seat back, neither of the characters appeared to have been thrown back as the car was hit from behind. Inertia is matter's ability to resist acceleration. A strong forward thrust wouldn't have actually pushed them backward, only backward relative to the car. In reality, they would have been in much the same place as before. (And they wouldn't have been thrown back too far because they weren't really hit very hard, and that was my biggest deal with this movie)

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[–] JW-7 12 years ago

They weren't really hit very hard??? Did we watch the same movie? They were hit very hard and by a truck that outweighed them by about 5 tons. Then they were sent careening into a pole that stopped them in their tracks and sent her slamming through the windshield. Just because the hit was shown in slow motion doesn't mean it wasn't a hard hit.

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[–] Fred-S 12 years ago

The weight of the truck isn't very important once the car has begun to move. Maximum energy is transferred in a collision between objects equal, or nearly equal, in mass. The greater the ratio of the masses, the smaller the percent of energy being transferred. As I recall they were being pushed along by the truck after the collision, which is consistent with the laws of physics. The car and the people inside were moving no faster than the truck when they hit the pole. One of the biggest flaws (in a movie defined by its flaws) is that paige was not injured nearly as badly as the woman, Krickett Carpenter, who was the Paige of real life, was.

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[–] JW-7 12 years ago

Well, I don't know. After being slammed through the windshield by a huge truck, and being comatose for God knows how long, that 2" scar just below her hairline looked pretty serious to me. The movie would have been in deep doo-doo if the accident had messed up her lovely face.

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[–] raf-33 12 years ago

??? Did you take physics in school. If a truck slams into the back of you the force will knock you forward. The only way she would have gone through the rear window would be if they were driving backwards and slammed into a still car.

EPIC EPIC FAIL!!

LMAO, This is akin to someone saying "Don't you know anything about procreation?? First the Stork rubs magic stuff on the woman's belly then returns nine months later with a baby in a hamper!"

Humans = mass. Everything = mass. A mass will always try to stay put unless a force is enacted against it. Does pulling a table cloth from under a table full of china spring to mind? Why doesn't the china follow the cloth? Any mass will always try to remain put.

If you are sitting in a car and something smacks you hard enough from behind you will slide over your car seat, straight across the rear seats and then you will exit via the rear window. Why? Because your body's mass is trying to stay where it was in the moment before the car was "pushed" from under you.

Did you take physics in school?

Tip: Next time learn about something before getting all 'correctful'.

I think you know what I'm gettin' at Mr. President. We're gonna kill us a mummy.

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[–] obeythejackal 12 years ago

If she was floating then the transfer of energy would not have effected her, however, she was sitting down the energy was transfered onto her as well.

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[–] jspost10 12 years ago

Actually the most dangerous part of the crash was the impact from behind which would have most likely badly injured them both. There is a guy here where I live who was sitting still at a stop sign and a truck ran into him from behind. He didn't have a scratch on him but the way that his head whipped back and forth, slamming his brain into the front and back of his skull, caused both brain damage and physical deficits. He was wearing a seat belt when he was hit.

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[–] raf-33 12 years ago

Yeah, the interior of your skull (for a reason known only to our creator) has lots of very sharp ridges and jaggy bits that follow the contours of your brain. Have your head shaken violently enough and your brain can be 'dashed on the rocks', so to speak. For the most part though our brain is held in place with a strong layer of padded cartiledge, so any knock does have to be quite considerable.

Also the left and right hemispheres of your brain are connected by a very small, very tight bunch of nerves that are essential to consciousness, stretch them a tiny bit and the two halves of your brain stop communicating with eachother, and you 'switch off'. This is why any serious impact to either the left or right side of the head is 90% more likely to put you in a coma as opposed to being struck on the front, back or top.

I think you know what I'm gettin' at Mr. President. We're gonna kill us a mummy.

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[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] raniatenzo 12 years ago

when she was hit from behind she was still in the car...she went through the front window after the car was hit in a booster in front of it....n in physics this this scene was shot right.....

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[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] iTower2 11 years ago

and here just watched this fun romantic movie, stumble upon this physics thread.. made me re-watch the scene.

I approve of the physics in trusting body into the front windshield.

I disapprove on the impact projecting Paige through the windshield and onto the hood.

If such impact was that strong, airbag would have gone off. Unless they bought a car dating back in the early 90's and before.

Also, the guy would likely have major injury to his neck due to the seat belt holding his body in static while his head is in dynamic.

I also notice that you can't make out the make of the car, probably to avoid bad facing who ever made the car.

Conclusion: Paige lost her memory, and the movie was just a dream inside the Leo comatose head. :-D

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