Some damn fool here suggested using custard to restrain passengers in the event of a crash.

A better idea would be to make seatbelts out of silly putty, or at least out of a flexible tube filled with silly putty.

At rest, the silly putty will gradually contract, snuggling up the belt. In the event of an abrupt deceleration (crash), the silly putty core of the belt will resist rapid extension, restraining the passengers.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 17 2013

not as silly but this could work http://auto.howstuf...vices/seatbelt4.htm
[Brian the Painter, Jan 18 2013]

This is a silly idea.
-- normzone, Jan 17 2013


Thank you.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 17 2013


It's that dilatant lifestyle you lead, [Max].
-- UnaBubba, Jan 18 2013


I see what you did there.

dilatant = material is one in which viscosity increases with the rate of shear strain.

dilettante = a person who is or seems to be interested in a subject, but whose understanding of it is not very deep.
-- csea, Jan 18 2013


Yep.
-- UnaBubba, Jan 18 2013


cf the "Karatand" in John Brunner's STAND ON ZANZIBAR
-- smendler, Jan 20 2013


It must be a substance exactly not unlike but slightly dissimilar to Silly Putty. If you pull the putty apart slightly, then give it a rapid tug, it will snap clean, a property not typically sought in seat belts.
-- tatterdemalion, Jan 20 2013


I continue to be interested in what sort of images might be transferred onto (and into) the Silly Putty seatbelts upon impact, and how might this be made into a unique selling feature.
-- jurist, Jan 20 2013


Regarding the technology in the link, seatbelt pretensioners are all very well and good, but who wants a pretentious seatbelt?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 20 2013


What would be their particular affect, [Max]?
-- UnaBubba, Jan 20 2013


In response to tatterdemalion's comment, it could be designed so that the main structure of the seatbelt is a mesh of strong fibers woven on a diagonal bias so that the space between the fibers is large when the tension is low, but becomes small when tugged. If the putty were incorporated to fill these spaces, then the impact would serve to squeeze the putty out of the spaces, thus loading it in compression rather than tension. The issue of snapping putty is thus solved.
-- Freefall, Jan 21 2013


Freefall???
-- blissmiss, Jan 21 2013


Freefall// Brilliant, and well worded
-- Brian the Painter, Jan 22 2013



random, halfbakery