The term “airbag” itself is misleading since there’s no significant “air” in these cushions. They are, instead, shaped and vented nylon-fabric pillows that fill, when deployed, with nitrogen gas. They are designed to supplement seatbelt restraints and help distribute the load exerted on a human body during an accident to minimize the deceleration rate and likelihood of injury. But while “supplement the seatbelt” is the mission of airbags, federal regulations require that they be tested and made effective for unbelted occupants, vastly complicating their task.

Airbags must do their work quickly because the window of opportunity—the time between a car’s collision with an object and an occupant’s impact on the steering wheel or instrument panel—lasts only milliseconds. For illustration’s sake, imagine a Corvette hitting a bridge abutment head-on at 30 mph. The clock starts the instant the tip of the car’s nose hits the concrete. The Mechanics There are six main parts of an airbag system: an accelerometer; a circuit; a heating element; an explosive charge; and the bag itself. Image 2. Crash testing airbags Image 3 parts of an airbag (https://www.popsci.com/how-airbags-are-supposed-to-work/) The accelerometer keeps track of how quickly the speed of your vehicle is changing.

When your car hits another car—or wall or telephone pole or deer—the accelerometer triggers the circuit. The circuit then sends an electrical current through the heating element, which is kind of like the ones in your toaster, except it heats up a whole lot quicker. This ignites the charge which prompts a decomposition reaction that fills the deflated nylon airbag (packed in your steering column, dashboard, or car door) at about 200 miles per hour. The whole process takes a mere 1/25 of a second. The bag itself has tiny holes that begin releasing the gas as soon as it’s filled. The goal is for the bag to be deflating by the time your head hits it. That way it absorbs the impact, rather than your head bouncing back off the fully inflated airbag and causing you the sort of whiplash that could break your neck. Sometimes a puff of white powder comes out of the bag. That’s cornstarch or talcum powder to keep the bag supple while it’s in storage. (Just like a rubberband that dries out and cracks with age, airbags can do the same thing.) Most airbags today have silicone coatings, which makes this unnecessary. Advanced airbags are multistage devices capable of adjusting inflation speed and pressure according to the size of the occupant requiring protection. Those determinations are made from the information provided by seat position and occupant-mass sensors. The SDM also knows whether a belt or child restraint is in use. Today, manufacturers want to make sure that what’s occurring is in fact an accident and not, say, an impact with a pothole or a curb. Accidental airbag deployments would, after all, attract trial lawyers in wholesale lots.

While a series of events take place within the airbag system, what ultimately causes the airbag, stored in the steering column, to inflate? Be detailed and specific. Use evidence from the text and image to support your response.

An example of how your answer should look is attached below.
Transcribed Image Text:1) What is an ion? Explain the difference between a monatomic and polyatomic ion. An ion is a charged atom with #protons # # electrons. On page three, paragraph one reads, "The prefix poly- means many, and atomic refers to atoms. An ion with more than one atom is a polyatomic ion. As a result, polyatomic ions differ from monoatomic ions, which contain only one atom." Polyatomic ions are groups of covalently bonded atoms, where the total number of protons is not equal to the total number of electrons. Atoms become ions when they gain or lose electrons and this results in a net charge. On page two, the ionic compound image shows an ionic bond formed between aluminum (Al) and chlorine (CI). In this image, Al+3 is a monoatomic ion as it is composed of one atom. AIC13 is a polyatomic ion because there is more than one atom involved.

Question

The term “airbag” itself is misleading since there’s no significant “air” in these cushions. They are, instead, shaped and vented nylon-fabric pillows that fill, when deployed, with nitrogen gas. They are designed to supplement seatbelt restraints and help distribute the load exerted on a human body during an accident to minimize the deceleration rate and likelihood of injury. But while “supplement the seatbelt” is the mission of airbags, federal regulations require that they be tested and made effective for unbelted occupants, vastly complicating their task.

Airbags must do their work quickly because the window of opportunity—the time between a car’s collision with an object and an occupant’s impact on the steering wheel or instrument panel—lasts only milliseconds. For illustration’s sake, imagine a Corvette hitting a bridge abutment head-on at 30 mph. The clock starts the instant the tip of the car’s nose hits the concrete. The Mechanics There are six main parts of an airbag system: an accelerometer; a circuit; a heating element; an explosive charge; and the bag itself. Image 2. Crash testing airbags Image 3 parts of an airbag (https://www.popsci.com/how-airbags-are-supposed-to-work/) The accelerometer keeps track of how quickly the speed of your vehicle is changing.

When your car hits another car—or wall or telephone pole or deer—the accelerometer triggers the circuit. The circuit then sends an electrical current through the heating element, which is kind of like the ones in your toaster, except it heats up a whole lot quicker. This ignites the charge which prompts a decomposition reaction that fills the deflated nylon airbag (packed in your steering column, dashboard, or car door) at about 200 miles per hour. The whole process takes a mere 1/25 of a second. The bag itself has tiny holes that begin releasing the gas as soon as it’s filled. The goal is for the bag to be deflating by the time your head hits it. That way it absorbs the impact, rather than your head bouncing back off the fully inflated airbag and causing you the sort of whiplash that could break your neck. Sometimes a puff of white powder comes out of the bag. That’s cornstarch or talcum powder to keep the bag supple while it’s in storage. (Just like a rubberband that dries out and cracks with age, airbags can do the same thing.) Most airbags today have silicone coatings, which makes this unnecessary. Advanced airbags are multistage devices capable of adjusting inflation speed and pressure according to the size of the occupant requiring protection. Those determinations are made from the information provided by seat position and occupant-mass sensors. The SDM also knows whether a belt or child restraint is in use. Today, manufacturers want to make sure that what’s occurring is in fact an accident and not, say, an impact with a pothole or a curb. Accidental airbag deployments would, after all, attract trial lawyers in wholesale lots.

While a series of events take place within the airbag system, what ultimately causes the airbag, stored in the steering column, to inflate? Be detailed and specific. Use evidence from the text and image to support your response.

An example of how your answer should look is attached below.

1) What is an ion? Explain the difference between a monatomic and polyatomic ion.
An ion is a charged atom with #protons # # electrons. On page three, paragraph one reads, "The
prefix poly- means many, and atomic refers to atoms. An ion with more than one atom is a
polyatomic ion. As a result, polyatomic ions differ from monoatomic ions, which contain only
one atom." Polyatomic ions are groups of covalently bonded atoms, where the total number of
protons is not equal to the total number of electrons. Atoms become ions when they gain or lose
electrons and this results in a net charge. On page two, the ionic compound image shows an
ionic bond formed between aluminum (Al) and chlorine (CI). In this image, Al+3 is a
monoatomic ion as it is composed of one atom. AIC13 is a polyatomic ion because there is more
than one atom involved.

Accepted Answer

As soon as the collision happens, the safety device called air bag gets inflated by the gas nitrogen…