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Home Safety Physics!THE IMPACT OF PHYSICS ON CHILD SAFETY!
A new era in child safety!PHYSICS TO PROTECT KIDS!Children can learn safety!
Kids can grasp the damage to Mr. Mel-On-Head's © tooth after he falls into the piano bench?To understand the "physics" of our home environment greatly increases our ability to see potential danger and to avoid it. There exists a “vacuum” in our understanding of what happens to our bodies in an accident. If we walk into a brick wall, fall from a ladder, slip on slippery floor, fall onto the sidewalk from the front porch, or a million other motion related injuries - what are the consequences? Also, to what degree do we understand fires in our homes? What do fires do us and what can we do to protect ourselves? What about the potential destructive force of objects such as a piano bench, if we fall into a sharp corner? What do we understand about the effects of a powerful jolt of household electricity passing through our bodies? Some of us may know, but most of us don’t really know.
If we don’t know, then, what do you think our kids know? Our ability to survive to a great extent depends on our understanding of “Safety Physics”. If a risk presents itself, we must first be able to recognize the danger that might hurt us, and then we must decide the degree of danger and the type of danger. Or, "Just how bad will this be?" If you don't know, then you have a problem! To a great extend safety is common sense!If we were in the path of a large truck moving towards us, virtually everyone would understand what to do! There is an element of primordial fear that is fundamental in all of us. If we turn and see a bear running towards us, we sense the need to retreat. Much of what we do in safety is to some degree “programmed” into “minds” as a natural response to protect ourselves.What is safety physics?"Safety Physics" was developed as a "term" to define the special considerations of physics as it relates to safety. A very fundamental understanding of some concepts helps us to make safety decisions. For the parents, a quick lesson centers around the effect of speed on an accident. If you double the speed from 5 MPH to 10 MPH, we are traveling twice as fast. If you hit a brick wall at 10 MPH is the force created going to be twice as great as 5 MPH? The answer is the energy is now 4 times greater at 10 MPH as compared to 5 MPH.
We make choices that control physics!
As you increase the speed, this relationship continues. At 60 MPH if you stop suddenly, the body can feel thousands of pounds of force. Even at walking speed if we were to hit our head it can produce a serious injury. The lesson is that speed significantly increases the potential danger. Slow down!If you apply this to home safety, "speed" dramatically increases the potential for serious injury. It also increases the likelihood of an accident. As your children play, consider activities like skate boarding (Fast moving bodies subject to sudden stoppage on concrete!) can be very dangerous. Protective equipment should be worn. Needs some support? Talk to a doctor who works in an emergency center? They can help educate your children.Falls are a leading cause of accidents!
Falls are a major source of accidents!They get more serious as the height is increased or as the speed of impact is increased. The higher up we are allows us more time to accelerate to a higher speed, and the seriousness of the accident quickly changes. Once again speed is our enemy!
Falls are one of the leading causes of injuries to children. Children should not be allowed to climb to a place that they might fall. A swing set or back yard tree can be dangerous. The idea is for the parents to understand that falls are dangerous. Steps must be taken to keep the kids in safe areas where a fall will not occur.
The fall doesn't hurt us, it is the stopping!Other factors affect the outcome of a fall in terms of an injury. If your body is in motion and you contact a large even surface your weight will be distributed over the entire surface. But if you were to fall into the corner of a piece of furniture that has a sharp corner, then you are placing all the force or energy into a very small area. The corner contacts us first and it extremely small in comparison to the floor. If we were to measure it, it can be such a tremendous force, it could break through our skull or cause a deep bruise or other serious wound. The sharper the corner, there is more potential for a serious injury. It depends where the object strikes the body, but if it were to hit the head, this could be a fatal accident. So as part of our safety plan, we have to remove sharp corners, like a piano bench or a table that our kids hit if they fall. If we can't remove it then place a protective device over it. They sell these at the hardware store. The kids will fall; just make sure you prevent an injury that could be serious not providing a sharp corner in which they might fall.
Make Your Home Safe Now!“Being a Safe Kid”, used physical demonstrations with a real Honey Dew melon to teach the kids some of the physics of safety. Our demo man, Mr. Mel-On-Head, showed the kids what happens when you bump your head. The kids get an advanced look at what could happen to them. The demonstrations gave the children a clear understanding of certain types of injuries. When they see the damage to the melon, as he hits a corner of a piano bench, they see not only how it happen, but they can see the damage.
These physical demonstrations are amazingly simple, but are also an extraordinarily effective teaching method. They see the event and then see the damage - the kids now have motivation not to bump their heads into objects. Do they understand the full implications of the injury? Probably not, but if we can reduce the probably they will bump their heads then we have improved the safety in their lives.
Helping the kids to understand!This is a critical element in our approach to child safety. Words and descriptions don’t easily create a behavioral change in a child. With a visual demonstration, the children get the message - plus they are motivated. A picture is worth a thousand words, and well, a movie is a thousand pictures. They don't want to bump their heads!The kids have now a basic understanding that perhaps they don’t want to bump their heads and they “really” don’t want to bump their heads into a sharp corner. They could see the hole in “Mr. Mel-On-Head’s head. They could learn the essential’s – how, what, where, and why! With this principle tucked away, they could apply it to this type of threat everywhere they go!
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