A person is traveling 75.0 km/h in an automobile and throw abottle of mass 0.500

Question

A person is traveling 75.0 km/h in an automobile and throw abottle of mass 0.500kg out the window. A) With what momentum does the bottle hit a roadwaysign? B) With what momentum does the bottle hit an oncomingautomobile traveling 85.0km/h in the opposite direction? C) With what momentum does the bottle hit an automobilepassing and traveling 85.0km/h in the same direction? A person is traveling 75.0 km/h in an automobile and throw abottle of mass 0.500kg out the window. A) With what momentum does the bottle hit a roadwaysign? B) With what momentum does the bottle hit an oncomingautomobile traveling 85.0km/h in the opposite direction? C) With what momentum does the bottle hit an automobilepassing and traveling 85.0km/h in the same direction?

Explanation / Answer

As you probably know, momentum is a vector quantity defined asmass times velocity p=m*v. You are given both quantities so you caneasily calculate what the momentum of the bottle will be if thedriver just lets go of the bottle (that is without giving it extraspeed).
In the absense of non conservative forces (such as air resistance)the bottle's momentum will be conserved (it will not change unlessacted upon by something, say by the incoming car). Now, I don'tknow if you left some details out or if this is a trick questionbut the bottle's momentum is just that of the definition (it isindependent of the momentum of an incoming or passing vehicle).Also in part c) since the bottles velocity vector is less than thecars velocity vector the bottle will not even hit the car eventhough both momentums point in the same direction. (Notice that we are thinking about cars as point particles andwe are thinking of the whole problem in one dimension, otherwisewe'll need the lenght of the car to calculate if it outruns thebottle and the angle at which the bottle is throuwn.This isjust a note don't worry too much about it if you find itconfusing) So then to me the answer is: a)Bottles momentum p=75*.5 kg*km/h b)p=75*.5 kg*km/h c)It doesn't hit the car but the bottle stil has a p=75*.5kg*km/h I hope this helps. I hate to give such long answers in thegrounds that most of the time they tend to confusing thanhelpful.

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