Is this possible?

[ninja]

Asked in Motoring and was guided here...

I guy at work reckons he was going so fast in his car once that he took off going over a hump-back bridge & cleared the car coming the other way, on landing pushing his suspension top mounts through the wings. This was also with 4 people in the car.

I have no doubt that this is a bit of a jackanory tale on his part as he is prone to, let's say, 'embellish' the truth a bit. Was just wondering if it were possible what sort of speeds & trajectories would we be talking about.

[mightyWBA]

Which Duke brother was it?

[factor-fiction]

Did this happen while he playing with his scalextric?

[RAV1D]

I can imagen it can happen if going fast enough over the right type of hump hill and the car in front is in the right place also at the right time.

[jomifl]

yeah right....

[Euphemia]

Evel Knievel style

[mibn2cweus]

Probably just watching too many movies . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25W908awEqg

[jake-the-peg]

You can have some fun with that here

http://www.calctool.o.../newtonian/projectile

For example if you assume the bridge is a 30 degree angle and the car hits at 70 mph you'd go 86 meters and a maximum height of 18 meters.

If that seems a lot to you then you're right. Air resistance is neglected and that's quite a big factor in a calculation like this.

It's also fiendishly difficult to account for. A proper scientific answer is related to the Navier Stokes equation - which is still unsolved and has a $1 million bounty on it's head.

[Ankou]

in a jump like that the axles would have snapped, along with the exhaust etc, and many other things. possibly all the glass would have shattered as well. assuming it was a standard car.

[rowanwitch]

I would imagine the impact would have significant risks of causing damage due to jarring and peoples heads/necks being inadequately supported possibly spinal nerve damage and rupture of smaller blood vessels ... one for the crash test dummy to try I think

[heathfield]

Film makers have to take care to get the balance of the vehicle right for such scenes. Otherwise, the car will tend to nose-dive after taking off due to the weight of the engine up front.

[derekgprior]

This is a movie stunt. As they say "Do not try this at home"