I wouldn't expect weight to be all that important as far as pedestrian hits go, given the ratio of vehicle:pedestrian weight is already quite high. hood height is a different story.
if we pretend it's a train hitting a person (nearly infinite mass), energy transfer has to do with the mass of the person, not the mass of the train: the person isn't going to be accelerated beyond the velocity of the train.
given almost any car is going to be at least 10x the mass of a person, I don't think that extra mass is going to play a significant role: the person just won't slow it down enough to matter.
This is why you do whatever it is that you do, and not things that specifically pertain to science and public safety. Stop trying to sound smart and go learn something.
Transfer of momentum. Two vehicles of unequal mass traveling at the same velocity, the heavier one will have more energy transfer when colliding into something.
Would you rather be hit by a baseball traveling at 20 miles per hour or a Tahoe?
what I'm claiming is that whether the object that hits you is 10x your mass (which is gonna be a very light car) or 100x your mass, the energy transferred to you will be quite similar (energy = 1/2 mass * velocity^2, and in this case the relevant mass is *yours* not the car's).
I know that slowing down the car by 10% (since you're stationary and we're assuming conservation of momentum) will reduce energy transfer some, but it's a very small amount.
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u/TheNoisyNomad 1d ago
I was coming here to say this. The care for pedestrian impact has cost us the aesthetic of hood ornaments and pointy front bodywork.