Quote:
Originally Posted by Bicycle Bob
Thanks, folks. The local 300 lb deer certainly are hard on larger vehicles around here. I wonder if the deer sometimes do most of the jumping to get over a car.
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I contend with lots of deer on my nightly, 150 mile, delivery route. Consequently I've thought about this - A LOT!
In both the video clip above and in baasjoos' description the deer runs across the road at a 90* angle. The sharp wedge of the car hits the deer at or about the ankles. The main (more or less barrel shaped) mass of the deer begins falling, while the car acts on the legs as a lever rotating the main mass of the deer. By the time the main mass of the dear makes contact with the even slope of the hood, the portion of the mass that makes the contact is rotating at about the same speed that the car is moving forward (helping to minimize impact forces on the hood of the vehicle. The motion of the car and slope of the hood impart an upward force and shoot the deer into the air and over the car.
In the same sort of situation with a more conventional vehicle nose, the deer's legs are hit at the knees. The legs still act as lever, but some goodly portion of main mass of the deer makes contact with a nearly verticle surface at a speed approximately equal to the speed the vehicle is traveling. (Instant deer burger & a trip to the body shop.)
If baasjoos or the race car in the clip had hit the same deer with the deer facing directly toward or away from the front of the vehicle, the damage to the vehicle would be far more sever.