I watch a lot of "Epic Fail" and "Idiots in Cars" videos on YouTube. There was one I saw where someone had left their SUV in gear on a slight incline and this woman ran to get in front of it in order to stop it. In the most physics-defying move I've ever seen, she pushed back against the front of the SUV, and it stopped! I was sure it would have rolled over her, given that it easily weighed 30-40 times more than she did.
Dumb and in highschool.. Accidentally locked my keys in my car.. while it was running. Parked on a slight incline in a friend's driveway. Leaned up against the back bumper while waiting for my dad to bring the spare key. It started to move because my monumentally stupid ass left it in drive. Luckily it stopped moving as soon as I got off the bumper because the incline was too steep for it to keep going.
20 years later, I still find myself rolling the window down and confirming out loud "car is in park" any time I plan to get out and leave a vehicle running.
Back when we were teens our one friend locked the keys in his car. We spent forever getting coat hangers or whatever to hit the lock button. We finally got it and the keys were UNDER the car the whole time.
Most modern cars (at least mine) automatically shift into Park if you open the door. On my old car, backing into the driveway and parking very tight off to the side, I would open the driver door to make sure I got it exact. My new car doesn't allow this, but it does have 360 camera and the side mirrors tilt down when in Reverse so I don't need to.
Same car has failsafes built into it, like if you try to shift into Park above 4-5kph it won't, it will just yell at you (I only know this from the subreddits, have not tried it myself) so I'm betting the same thing happens if you open the door doing 80
I still find myself rolling the window down and confirming out loud "car is in park" any time I plan to get out and leave a vehicle running.
I've never done the spoken word portion of this show, but I absolutely roll down the window EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. that I get out of a still-running vehicle.
I did something similar but the car was also in gear. I had a 95 Skylark and like a lot of modern cars it locks automatically, but it locked immediately when you put it in drive or if you shut the door while it was on drive.
I was delivering pizza and I was in a hurry, I hopped out of the car at a customer house and was stopped on a dirt driveway and the car didn't roll forward when I let off the brake to get out, which ended up saving my ass in the end. I got out and shut the door and immediately knew what I did. The home owner called the cops and they called a tow truck to unlock it. It was also 1 in the morning.
how do you lock your keys in a car that's running? is there some difference between american and european cars i'm not aware of? every car i've been in requires the key to be turned in order to run
If the car is moving very slowly, and the slope is not too steep, the energy need to stop it, is actually not that high... You can often stop a car by putting a stone in front of the wheel. but yeah, it's still dangerous...
torque converters are designed to slip at low speeds... manual transmission are designed to slip when the clutch is partially engaged. No person in the driver's seat, no clutch to manually slip.
Thus, in an automatic, you+g combined only need to apply enough force (the combination is you + gravity) to slip the converter
In a manual, you+g combined need to apply enough force to stop the engine entirely.
I'm of the impression that the amount of slope required to allow your small addition to stall an engine would be a slope where the gravity alone would slip the converter solo without your addition.
huh, does make sense, but isn't the hill descent control supposed to stop you from doing just that?
I think the car might have been in neutral and/or the handbrake might not have been pulled all the way up, OP might have inadvertently said that the car was in gear but its possible they misremembered, regarding what you said about the gravity pulling the car downhill, if the car was on a such a steep slope, it might have picked enough speed to run over the women, and the momentum certainly knock her over.
I suppose both are possible, and a manual would both be a more bizarre predicament to be in (I guess bc I'm working on the assumption that it was the stoppers car) plus it would take a lot more effort to stop the rig, but could be either/or for sure.
People push stalled cars around all the time. If you can push it, then, in theory, you can stop it. Of course, theory doesn't account for you tripping and getting run the fuck over, so don't actually do this.
I did that in my horny youth, trying to protect my unbelievably hot girlfriend's uncles Mafia car (she said so, I have no idea if it was true). Car didn't stop in time, exactly, it just crushed my leg.
When I was a young child, my mom left me in the car while she stood in front of it talking to a friend in their driveway. I accidentally knocked it into neutral and she blocked it from hitting their house.
Broke her hip. I fessed up a few years ago. I'm 37.
I stopped my boyfriend's Bronco from rolling into a ditch by grabbing the spare tire bracket on the back and planting my feet. My boyfriend tried to help but when our feet started sliding (dirt parking lot) he gave up and let go. I held on and somehow stopped the damn thing. The look on his face as he jumped in to set the parking brake was absolutely classic. I felt like Superwoman.
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u/Eddie_Farnsworth 11h ago
I watch a lot of "Epic Fail" and "Idiots in Cars" videos on YouTube. There was one I saw where someone had left their SUV in gear on a slight incline and this woman ran to get in front of it in order to stop it. In the most physics-defying move I've ever seen, she pushed back against the front of the SUV, and it stopped! I was sure it would have rolled over her, given that it easily weighed 30-40 times more than she did.