Duane Innes is a very smart man. He's in charge of Lockheed Martin's incredibly complex F-22 fighter program. But how smart is it to crash your car on purpose? When it saves another person's life (with physics!), very smart.


Duane saw a truck sliding across lanes at 40 mph. It showed no signs of stopping. Your (and probably my) reaction would most likely be one of frozen shock. But Duane? To Duane, "there was no time to take a vote." Yes, a vote, because he car was full of passengers.

Duane slammed on the gas, pulled ahead of the renegade truck, and let it rear end him. Risky? Stupid? Incredibly smart! "Basic physics," explained Duane. "If I could get in front of him and let him hit me, the delta difference in speed would just be a few miles an hour, and we could slow down together." And they did. You see, you dummy? Basic physics. The driver, who had suffered a heart attack and passed out at the wheel, survived, thanks to daring Duane and the power of science. This will now allow me to justify being a horrible coward on the grounds of an inadequate understanding of basic physics. [Seattle Times]