Airbags; Radio Reception - BMW M5 2001 Manual

Airbags

176n
Deceleration sensors continuously
monitor the physical forces acting upon
the vehicle. If, as the result of a frontal
collision, a deceleration is reached at
which the protection of the safety belts
alone is no longer adequate, the gas
generators of the front airbag will be
simultaneously ignited on both the
driver and passenger sides. However,
the front airbag on the passenger-side
is only triggered if an additional sensor
has recognized that the passenger seat
is occupied.
Depending on which side the vehicle is
involved in a side collision, the head
protection and side airbags in the front
*
and rear are triggered if necessary.
The airbags located under the marked
covers inflate and unfold in a matter of
a few milliseconds. In this process, they
tear through the designed breaking
points of the upholstered covers or
press them out.
Because the inflation process must be
virtually instantaneous, it is necessarily
accompanied by a certain amount of
ignition and inflation noise. The gas
required to inflate the airbags is not
dangerous, and the associated smoke
then dissipates.
The entire process is completed within
fractions of a second.

Radio reception

The AM frequency bands (medium-
wave, long-wave and short-wave) make
it possible to receive stations from a
great distance, because the broadcast
signals travel not only along the ground
as surface waves, but also as waves
bounced back to earth from the iono-
sphere.
Frequency-modulation (FM) provides
substantially better sound quality than
AM. However, because FM transmis-
sions rely on line-of-sight broadcast
waves, their effective reception range is
limited.
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