Someone asked in the comments how much kinetic energy Austin Dillon had when he hit the catchfence at Daytona. I don’t know exactly how fast he was going (probably was somewhere around 180 to 200 mph), so I figured I’d just make a graph and include a couple reference points in terms of kinetic energy scales.
The left axis is labeled in MegaJoules (MJ), which are millions of Joules. To give you an idea
- 0.009 MJ = energy contained in a AA alkaline battery
- 0.038 MJ = energy contained in one gram of fat
- 0.04-0.05 MJ = energy contained in one gram of gasoline
- 8.4 MJ = daily recommended energy intake for a typical active woman (2000 calories)
- 110 MJ = energy expended by a typical rider in the Tour de France
- 122 MJ = energy contained in a gallon of gasoline
- 1000 MJ = energy of a typical lightening bolt
So without further comment, here’s the kinetic energy of Austin Dillon, where I used his NASCAR official weight of 185 lb and minimum car weight of 3300 lbs. Black cowboy hat not included.
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