The best way to get hit by a car

Factual Questions
1

Imagine the following if you will,
You are walking across the street, a large busy street with fast-moving cars. Before you can arrive safely at the other side, a magical maleficent mime puts you in an enchanted cylinder. This cylinder prevents all motion except vertical. You cant escape, but the cars can still hit you. Speaking of which, a sedan with no brakes is coming at you fast! The horror.

My question is this: Is it better to brace yourself and get hit by the car head-on, or should you try and jump and be hit by the hood? I suppose being able to jump over the car entirely would be the best, but hey, we’re not all Jordan.
Thanks for your imagination cooperation,
Autolycus

2

I’d shoot the kid.

3

JUMP. Physics will tell you that being hit by a surface that’s less then vertical will do less harm then being hit my a vertical surface. Look at it this way…
Imagine, you’re paralized in the middle of the road (and this is 2D), you you rather be hit by a rectangle or a triangle



          __________
         |                    |         0
         |                    |   ->   |
         |__________|        / \

                       OR

                    /\                  0
                   /   \      ->       |
                  /___\              /\
[\code]

Ignore the awful drawing.

Like I said before I thing that the being hit by an angled surface will be much easier on the body then a flat surface.   But there's a lot of other things to take into account also.  Does the car stop (on a dime) when it hits you or does it continue on?  If it stops on a dime you'll be better off both ways, but if it continues on, you'll be better off rolling over the top of it then having it run you over.  And there's a million other things that will be different between the two scenarios.   Also, since we are in this hypothetical tube (can you move out of the tube after you are hit), does this also assume that your body is rigid?
Ahh, two many variables, not enough info.
4

Sure, you can move. After you get hit the mime just leaves you for dead. He’s laughing silently.

As for a rigid body, hmm, I assume it would be. Being scared usually makes you tense up right?

5

Not only jump, but turn so you get hit on the side, with your arms and legs taking more damage so your precious internal organs don’t suffer as much.

6

Jump and rotate till you are parallel to the ground, so your feet go through the windscreen and hit both the driver and the front passenger - Chuck Norris style.

If you are lucky you will survive the ensuing crash.

Si

7

not the lawsuit, though :wink:

8

I was hit by a car about a month ago. I faired pretty well, only on crutches for about a week, and in retrospect, I’d say I got hit in the best possible way. The SUV clipped me about mid thigh, below my center of gravity. The ground was very slick, so my legs slid out from under me, while my upper body hit the hood. I rolled off the hood, keeping my head from hitting the windshield or the ground, and landed in a snowbank.

So I’d say the best way is to have your feet off the ground or on a relatively frictionless surface, allowing much of the linear momentum to be transfered into angular. Worked for me!

9

Wow, you were quite literally hit in the best way possible – down to the snowbank.

I have always thought that getting one’s feet off the ground would prevent torsion on bones and joints.

Also, I apply my WWJBD (What Would Jack Bauer Do) test: Jack Bauer would jump.

10

Save your legs, but above all, save your skull. Jump, and wrap your arms around your head.

11

But not before shooting the driver square between the eyes and defusing a bomb. :wink:

12

And interrogating the mime.