Air Bag question

[Grim/Don]

I've wondered this for a long time...

If you hit the front bumper of a parked car with a sledge hammer, will the airbag go off? Or say, jump out in traffic and slam the front of a running car? Or is the actuator burried deeper or tied into the computer somehow?

Another question I've always wondered about... Ya know those rows and rows of parked new cars at the car dealer's... If you took a high powered rifle, how many windows could you get at once? I'm thinking, standing from the driver's side and out the passenger side...

Not that I'm going to try either, but you you've got a buddy who knew this guy who did crazy stuff when he was younger...

 

[Cougar Allen]

Back when air bags first came out all the magazines said they could be set off by bashing the front bumper with a sledge hammer, and concern was voiced about the possibility that somebody might think it comical to go down the street at night with a sledgehammer setting off all the air bags. As it turned out, nobody is interested. There are plenty of "jokes" that require less work....

Car windows these days are surprisingly resistant to impact, and most high-powered rifle bullets are not designed to hit hard things and continue on unaltered by the experience. My guess is not very many.

 

[fishbulb]

Airbags don't actually work off of impact, they work off of acceleration.

There is a MEMS device (or several) buried in the front of the car that is designed to complete an electrical circuit when the car experiences either a sudden deceleration from forward to stop or a sudden acceleration backwards; both of which indicate that you just had an impact with something big up front.

So, if your sledgehammer could create a significant acceleration backwards you could in theory deploy the airbag. However, the MEMS device is calibrated so it won't deploy under even the most violent of braking manuevers. Unless you can hit the car hard enought to accelerate it backwards at a rate that would produce the same force as an accident at speed, the airbag won't deploy.

Additionally, some airbag systems are also tied into to the transmission setting and vehicle speed sensors wo they will only deploy under certain conditions; regardless of how hard an impact is.

So the answer is no, unless your name happens to be Superman.