For a long time, the only form of protection that was in your car was your seat belt. However, since then technology has advanced and we now have both seat belts and air bags in order to protect us in the event of a possible crash. But how exactly do they work?
Lets go back to school for moment and consider the law of motion. When you are driving, you are moving forward, building up momentum. This means that the passengers in the car are going to be moving at the same speed at the car, until some other force stops that. Lets say for instance someone were to accidentally drive into a pole going 30 mph. The car (and consequently the people inside) would then also be moving at 30 mph, and the pole was the force that stopped it. This would cause everything and everyone inside to move (or fly around, as it were).
The goal of an airbag is to provide a cushion. While the person is moving in one direction, the airbag needs to meet and connect with at least an equal amount of force in order to work properly. The airbag will slow the person’s speed down and help them receive minimum damage.
The compartment your airbag is in has what is considered a crash sensor. The jarring motion of the crash would set off the censor, and it would tell the car to release the bag, which is made of nylon. Hot blasts of nitrogen gas would then work to inflate the air bag, which is what serves as the cushion for the passenger. This whole process takes place in one twenty-fifths of a second.
Many have said to not keep children in the front seat, and this is the reason for it. That kind of quick blast is meant for an adult with a larger body size and weight; that could do serious damage to a small child.
