According to a news report in this morning's edition of 'THE HINDU', researchers at Kyoto University are working on cellulose nanofibres as a viable alternative to steel in automobiles as these are five times stronger and weigh only one fifth of steel. In countries like India where most people don't use seatbelts, light weight cars can be dangerous. Moreover I am not sure as to whether such vehicles would be apt, considering our local road conditions with generally erratic and speedy driving.
(Any middle school physics student would be able to visualise the impact of light weight vehicles on passengers without their seatbelts on, as my students had been able to, after doing simple experiments with toy cars, dolls and rubber bands in my Physics classrooms years back).
No comments:
Post a Comment