247Accident Reconstruction
Newton’s second law, as stated earlier, applies to rectilinear as well as curvilinear motion
for a particle. In the context of a body such as a vehicle in an accident reconstruction, it is
recognized that all the particles that comprise the vehicle are not rotating with the same
acceleration if the vehicle is in curvilinear motion. It is sucient, however, to consider the
acceleration at the center of mass of the vehicle.
Accident reconstructions generally involve solutions to physical phenomena within
the study of “mechanics.” Mechanics includes the study of motion and the forces that pro-
duce the motion. More specically, the study of motion is referred to as “dynamics” while
in the special case where the acceleration ...