BAM!!! Your head thrusts forward at an incredible speed.

Suddenly, a white object flies towards you, and soon enough, you feel your face covered in a soft mush. Your head falls backwards onto your seats headrest. An airbag has saved your life. How did it do it? We must firstly understand the Law of Motion. We know that all moving object have momentum, which is mass times the velocity of the object. The Law of Motion states that a moving object will continue travelling in the same speed and direction until a force has stopped it. In the case of a car, normally the vehicle will collide into something, however, the passengers and the driver continues to be thrust forward. This is where airbags can save lives. According to RACQ and How Stuff Works, an airbag is a nylon bag full of air that inflates and deflates rapidly in the time of a vehicle collision. The driver s frontal airbag is located inside the steering wheel, while the side passengers airbags pops out of the dashboard. Sensors are used to determine the severity of a collision, therefore determining whether to deploy the airbag or not. Once the sensors decide an airbag is to be deployed, the system rapidly burns chemicals producing huge amounts of nitrogen gas. The filled airbag pops out of the steering wheel or dashboard. At the same time, the occupant will be thrust forward into the airbag. Once the occupant is in contact with the airbag, it will deflate through the vent holes in the airbags base. This entire process takes only a second. In order for an airbag to deploy, the deceleration forces produced must be at least equal to the amount produced when a car hits an obstacle at 25km/h and the impact must be within around 30 degrees of either side of the vehicles centre line. Airbags wont deploy if there is no passenger. This is how an airbag works. Airbags have saved over 28,000 people in the USA alone; Im sure all of you now realise the airbags potential.

Reference List
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The Royal Automobile Club of Queensland. (2009). Airbags. Available: http://www.racq.com.au/motoring/cars/safer_cars/safety_fact_sheets/airbags. Last accessed 09/09/13.

UKIP Media & Events. (2013). Thirty years of saving lives: Happy birthday to the airbag. Available: http://www.traffictechnologytoday.com/features.php?BlogID=448. Last accessed 09/09/13.

Anonymous. (2013). The History of Airbags. Available: http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/a/air_bags.htm. Last accessed 09/09/13.

Private Fleet. (1999). What is Airbags?. Available: http://www.privatefleet.com.au/glossary/airbags/. Last accessed 09/09/13.