A truck of mass M collides head on with a car of mass, m. The mass of the truck,

Question

A truck of mass M collides head on with a car of mass, m. The mass of the truck, M is much greater than the mass of the car, m.

A. Is the force that the truck exerts on the car greater than, less than or equal to the force that the car exerts on the truck? Why?

I assume that the force the truck exerts on the car is greater than the force that is exerted by the car because the the truck's mass is much greater.

B. Is the magnitude of the acceleration of the car greater than, less than or equal to the magnitude of the acceleration of the truck? Why?

I think that the magnitude of the acceleration of the car is less than that of the truck based off of the different masses again but I'm not sure.

C. Suppose there are passengers of equal mass riding in both the car and the truck. Both passengers are held rigidly in place in their respective vehicles by seatbelts. Is the magnitude of the force exerted by the seatbelt on the passenger in the car greater than, less than or equal to the magnitude of the force exerted by the seatbelt on the passenger in the truck? Why?

I think that the magnitude of the force exerted by the seatbelt on the passenger in the car is greater than the truck's because the car weighs less and has to compensate for the difference in forces and acceleration (the truck's is greater) so the seatbelt has to exert more force on the person to keep them from flying forward.

Thanks for any help that you can give me!

Explanation / Answer

A.

According to newton's third law, Every action has equal and opposite reaction . hence force that the truck exerts on the car must be equal to the force that the car exerts on the truck in opposite direction.

B.

acceleration , a = F/m

since the force F is same on both truck and car , we need to look at the masses

from the bove formula , greater mass will have smaller acceleration since "a" is inversly related to "m"

so car will have greater acceleration because its mass is smaller.

C)

Since the acceleration of the car is greater than that of truck , the passengers in car will experience greater force

since F = ma,   greater acceleration means greater force

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse A
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.