Retro Bob said:OK, all you amateur physicists:
If a 155 pound mass (me) is traveling at 10 mph (on bike) and I
strike an object dead on with my shoulder (roughly 2 sq inches) -
what the load presented by my shoulder to the object.A rough calculation of 150lbs concentrated into 2 sq inches tells
me that the static load would be 75 lbs/inch... but obviously
the 10 mph would be the key here... and I forgot more physics than
I ever really understood.
What you're looking for is "impulse", which is a force, calculated as
the change in momentum per second.
If your bike weighs 25lb, then total mass is 180lb. Let's do this in SI
units as it's a lot easier, so call it 82kg.
Momentum is mass x velocity, so 82kg x 4.5m/s = 369 kg m/s.
To get the impulse you need to know how long it takes for the bike to
come to a stop. Let's assume it's something rigid and guess 1/100
second to allow for the deformation of your flesh and bone and some
movement of the rest of your body to absorb the impact. That gives an
impulse of
369 x 100 = 37kN (or kg m/s^2, if you prefer - it's the same thing).
Divided by the 2 square inches, this gives 14.4 MPa or about 2080psi,
which is going to hurt but shouldn't actually break your shoulder.
This is the *average* force over the deceleration - the peak force is
likely to be quite a lot greater. Don't try it at home.