f = m x v

Force = Mass x Velocity

I did take physics in high school. You know; …………..the class about the study of how things move. I took it my senior year and I felt as though anytime I figured out a problem on my own correctly, I felt pretty darn good about it; like it was a great accomplishment or something. It WAS an interesting class. Difficult. I guess it wasn’t interesting enough for me to consider ever taking another physics class in the rest of my higher education career. Nonetheless, an interesting class.

Speaking of physics and the study of motion…. last week I was riding on the national road on the way to my usual afternoon language lesson. I slowed down a bit as I saw a large blue dump truck with a load full of dirt turning around and backing into a driveway.

Apparently the person in front of me didn’t see the large blue dump truck with a full load of dirt backing into a driveway as early as I saw it.

This person in front of me was driving a small moto, with a trailer (remark) FULL of coconuts. Here’s where the physics comes in. I don’t know if you know… but coconuts are a very heavy fruit when ripe and full of coconut juice. When you have an entire load of them, you can imagine it’d be quite the haul, especially for a little moto (which is bigger than a moped, smaller than a motorcycle), and its little moto brakes. Sometimes I’ll even see a person hauling a load of 20-30 coconuts on their bicycles somehow. I don’t know how they do it. One wrong turn or balance mishap – and they’d be down for sure; if not careful, perhaps even pinned down by the coconuts (if they were still on the branch).

Anyhow, on this particular afternoon the person driving the moto w/ coconuts was NOT able to slow down in time. It’s not that he was even really driving that fast, but the momentum that he had going with the heavy coconuts in back was way too much for his tiny moto-breaks to handle. He was able to slow down a little bit, and again not really going fast at all, wasn’t able to stop in time. His moto crashed right into the truck (which was far too large to try and get out of the way in time).

Thankfully, the man was okay, as he was able to bail out before it hit the truck. But even at what seemed to be a slow speed when it crashed, the speed and momentum was enough to have his mirror fly off and the front part of his moto-wheel damaged a bit. I guess that’s probably mostly because of all the momentum of the load of coconuts in the back. Mass x Velocity = Force. Sometimes very strong forces. Thankfully he was okay and wasn’t driving any faster. I wouldn’t have wanted to witness a full on crash with a worse outcome.

I guess moral of the story, when driving on a busy road, be alert and always on the lookout; especially if you’re carrying really heavy loads (such as lots of coconuts) with a vehicle that doesn’t have very powerful breaks.