With every simple test you see on TV, there are lots of calculations being done behind the scenes so we thought we’d give you some of the science behind the crashes and explosions.

Car-Stopping, Concrete-Crushing Calculations

To pick the proper densities of aerated concrete, we needed to figure out some general numbers for the energies we were dealing with. The general idea is to use work and energy principles.

Initial kinetic energy of the vehicle — rolling and crushing energy — equals final kinetic energy of the vehicle. The calculation looks like this: ½ mv^2 - µmgd – (area under the concrete stress strain curve)x(volume of crushed material) = 0

M is mass of the vehicle; v is velocity of the vehicle; mu is the coefficient of rolling friction; g, is gravity; d is the distance we are solving for, and the other two get into really complicated integrals real quick.