Most cars are built to survive assaults, but they have obvious limitations such as high speed car crashes. The engineer put his vehicle through one of the most extreme tests imaginable. He dropped his Opel Corsa Swing hatchback from his height of 150 feet onto the world’s strongest trampoline. Find out which one survives in this “Car vs World’s Strongest Trampoline” viral YouTube video.
“Car vs. World’s Strongest Trampoline” YouTube Video by Former NASA Engineer Mark Rober
The “Car vs. World’s Strongest Trampoline” YouTube video, with over 30 million views, is the brainchild of inventor, engineer, and educator Mark Rober. His popular YouTube channel features do-it-yourself gadgets and science experiments. Early in his career, Rober served as his NASA engineer for nine years, including work on the Mars rover Curiosity. He also worked on Apple’s self-driving car project.
Rober’s engineering expertise and ingenuity, especially when it comes to trampoline construction, is fully demonstrated in the YouTube video “Car vs. World’s Strongest Trampoline”. To create the world’s strongest trampoline, which weighs two tons, Rober and his team used a mat made of Kevlar, the material used in bulletproof vests.
The trampoline also has 144 giant garage door springs. Each spring can support 450 pounds of weight. This means that, in theory at least, the trampoline can hold about 65,000 pounds in total. As detailed by JD Power, the average weight of the car is much less, around 4,000 pounds according to the EPA.
And the Opel Corsa Swing supermini hatchback in the video weighs even less, at around 2,000 pounds. Therefore, the trampoline must be able to withstand impacts. However, there is also a little thing called gravity, which adds to the impact force.
The stunt Opel Corsa car was once the best-selling car in the world
The Opel Corsa swing hatchback in the YouTube video may be unfamiliar to many American viewers. However, in many parts of the world, Opel Corsa and its variants (including Swing) are everywhere. Opel is a German automobile manufacturer.
In recent years, the Toyota RAV4 compact SUV and Toyota Corolla compact car have alternately taken first and second place as the world’s best-selling cars. However, in 1998 Opel Corsa took the title of the best-selling car in the world with nearly one million sales of his.
The video was shot in Australia. However, Opel his Corsa Swing his variant was mainly sold in Asian countries such as India and Thailand. With this in mind, the Corsa Swing in the video may have been imported to Australia as a used model.
Other items were dropped in front of the car, including bowling balls, watermelons, and water-filled yoga balls
The “car drop” portion of the video begins at the 9:20 mark. However, it’s worth watching the entire video, especially how Rober delves into the engineering aspects of trampolines and stunts. He also eloquently illustrates the beauty of science by citing the ability to accurately predict how long it will take an egg to hit the ground after it has been dropped from the roof of a house.
The former NASA and Apple engineer said: Opposing philosophies, governments, and opinions may exist all over the world, but they will never reach agreement on who is most right. all become friends and yes we seem to have solved it too and 0.83 seconds is exactly what we came up with. ”
Rober and his team, as well as Australian scientists from another YouTube channel, also dropped other objects onto the trampoline before the car fell. They started with 1 bowling ball and 1 watermelon and progressed to 20 bowling balls and 20 watermelons. The team then proceeded to other items such as hundreds of water balloons, water-filled yoga balls, large blocks of ice, and large concrete balls at the same time.
In all these drops, the trampoline survived the crashes with ease. Also, items other than water balloons and melons ricocheted off trampolines and did no initial damage. Even the water-filled yoga ball was still intact when it first bounced off the trampoline—exploding only after a secondary impact of hitting the ground.
Trampolines win the battle, but cars live to see another day
Cars, however, offer a much heavier challenge on the trampoline. The Opel Corsa Swing drops steadily and crashes into the trampoline. Like a yoga ball, the car bounced off a trampoline at first, causing no major damage other than opening the hatchback door.
However, it was hit hard by successive bounces and collisions. On another bounce, the car hit the outer metal bars circling the trampoline, flipped 360 degrees before landing upright.
As for the trampoline, it was worthy of the title of the strongest in the world. Aside from a slight bend in the bars and some stretched springs, the trampoline held up very well. It also remained mostly intact despite the blows taken by the Corsa Swing. So Trampoline won the battle, but his car lived to see another day.
Rober and his team probably chose the Corsa Swing supermini car because it was lighter than most other vehicles. It will be interesting to see if the trampoline hits from a full-sized pickup he truck or a larger vehicle such as an SUV.
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