Injury in Collision

Question:



If a car is in an accident or someone is in free fall, and we find the force by mv/t, what is a value of F for which a person would be injured.

Answer:

The amount of force required to cause injury to a person depends on how the force is applied. If for example a person strikes a sharp object like the point of a knife, the force to cause injury is small, a pound or so could prove fatal. People have been known to survive falls from great height where the peak force of the collision with the ground was several tons. It depends on how the force is distributed and to some extent on the toughness of the person. There is no simple answer to your question.