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notaddicted | 12 years ago

I believe one of the tests is crashing into a wall that yields very little, so the tungsten dumptruck would fare poorly, exciting as it would be to drive.

EDIT: this one: http://youtu.be/V5R80yUUVNk

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ISL|12 years ago

The wall at left in that video is, at most, four dump trucks in volume and perhaps constructed of reinforced concrete (density ~2,500 kg/m^3)?

A single solid tungsten dump truck would have almost twice the mass of the wall. Even with a completely inelastic collision, the wall's going to shatter and move. For a 35 mph collision, I think you're right, that wall would ultimately bring the truck to a halt from friction with the ground. At higher speeds, I think the truck might make it through.

Tungsten is quite dense (19,300 kg/m^3). Such a truck would have a mass of >400 metric tons (2 x 3 x 4 m x 19 tons/m^3), or >247 Toyota Tacomas (2013 extended cab, curb weight 3560 lb --> 1618 kg).

The truck would be terrifying to drive, once you got it going. I don't know how you'd turn.

Alas, Youtube is short on tungsten dumptrucks, but this may suffice. In a demonstration, a truck uses its brakes to stop after obliterating a few cars. The truck is driven by a real person.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6TRqjjnO58

jlgreco|12 years ago

>400 metric tons

So around the max takeoff weight of a 747, with approximately as heavy duty a wheel setup I assume. That would be quite a truck.

Florin_Andrei|12 years ago

Given a heavy enough tungsten truck...