Thread: how do airbags work!?

is it possible to set of an airbag in the front or side when hit from the rear?

Is there a minimum speed required or can they go off at any speed?

A crash sensor is triggered by the impact and the ignitor inside the gas canister ignites and mixes the two chemicals together that are in the canister (can't remember the two chemicals but one is nitrogen something lol), this produces a nitrogen gas that inflates the bag and it bursts out of its housing. Of course, all that happens like lightning lol. After it inflates it slowly deflates as the gas escapes through the tiny holes in the nylon bag. They sometimes have talcum powder in to help them deploy.

They will set off at the equivelant of hitting an immovable object at about 10mph, and it is possible for side ones and front ones to go off if hit from behind but very rare as they rely on deceleration rates to trigger.

so if I nudged someone at a low enough speed to not break a bumper or number plate on either car am I right in thinking that a claim for a side airbag is not necessarily genuine?

From your description there i would say it was highly improbable that it would initiate an airbag.

Don't know how they work, but this reminded me of this video.