Chemistry Behind Airbags
The Chemistry Behind Airbags
Hannah Klein
4/5/13
pd. 11
Airbags are a type of automobile safety restraint like seatbelts, they are balloon-like devices that expand when a car experiences a collision, providing a cushion of air that prevents a person from bashing their face on the dashboard or steering wheel and suffering concussion, disfigurement, or worse. Airbags are usually fitted in the front seats. A car that is described as having a “driver’s side airbag” has one airbag only, designed to protect the driver. If a car has “dual airbags,” it has one airbag for the driver and another air bag for the passenger. A side airbag inflates from the side of a car and provides protection to the side of the body if the seat occupant is thrown …show more content…
There are three parts to an airbag that help to accomplish this. The bag itself is made of a thin, nylon fabric, which is folded into the steering wheel or dashboard or, more recently, the seat or door. The sensor is the device that tells the bag to inflate. Inflation happens when there is a collision force equal to running into a brick wall at 10 to 15 miles per hour (16 to 24 km per hour). A mechanical switch is flipped when there is a mass shift that closes an electrical contact, telling the sensors that a crash has occurred. The sensors receive information from an accelerometer built into a microchip. The airbag 's inflation system reacts sodium azide (NaN3) with potassium nitrate (KNO3) to produce nitrogen gas. Hot blasts of the nitrogen inflate the …show more content…
Stoichiometry is a large and influential factor in chemistry. Stoichiometry is the relationship between the relative quantities of substances taking part in a reaction or forming a compound, typically a ratio of whole integers. It deals with the quantitative factors and relationships of the reactants and products. The laws of definite proportions and the law of conservation of mass are both idle laws while dealing with stoichiometry. The law of definite proportions explains that every pure substance always contains the same elements combined in the same proportions by weight. The law of conservation of mass explains States that mass is neither created nor destroyed in any ordinary chemical reaction.Or more simply, the mass of substances produced, the products,by a chemical reaction is always equal to the mass of thereacting substances, the
Hannah Klein
4/5/13
pd. 11
Airbags are a type of automobile safety restraint like seatbelts, they are balloon-like devices that expand when a car experiences a collision, providing a cushion of air that prevents a person from bashing their face on the dashboard or steering wheel and suffering concussion, disfigurement, or worse. Airbags are usually fitted in the front seats. A car that is described as having a “driver’s side airbag” has one airbag only, designed to protect the driver. If a car has “dual airbags,” it has one airbag for the driver and another air bag for the passenger. A side airbag inflates from the side of a car and provides protection to the side of the body if the seat occupant is thrown …show more content…
There are three parts to an airbag that help to accomplish this. The bag itself is made of a thin, nylon fabric, which is folded into the steering wheel or dashboard or, more recently, the seat or door. The sensor is the device that tells the bag to inflate. Inflation happens when there is a collision force equal to running into a brick wall at 10 to 15 miles per hour (16 to 24 km per hour). A mechanical switch is flipped when there is a mass shift that closes an electrical contact, telling the sensors that a crash has occurred. The sensors receive information from an accelerometer built into a microchip. The airbag 's inflation system reacts sodium azide (NaN3) with potassium nitrate (KNO3) to produce nitrogen gas. Hot blasts of the nitrogen inflate the …show more content…
Stoichiometry is a large and influential factor in chemistry. Stoichiometry is the relationship between the relative quantities of substances taking part in a reaction or forming a compound, typically a ratio of whole integers. It deals with the quantitative factors and relationships of the reactants and products. The laws of definite proportions and the law of conservation of mass are both idle laws while dealing with stoichiometry. The law of definite proportions explains that every pure substance always contains the same elements combined in the same proportions by weight. The law of conservation of mass explains States that mass is neither created nor destroyed in any ordinary chemical reaction.Or more simply, the mass of substances produced, the products,by a chemical reaction is always equal to the mass of thereacting substances, the