A semi truck is driving his truck at 60 mph when it swerves and collides with a

Question

A semi truck is driving his truck at 60 mph when it swerves and collides with a smart car going the opposite direction at 80 mph. Which vehicle experiences a larger force from the collision? Which experiences a larger acceleration? Please explain why and show some work if possible A semi truck is driving his truck at 60 mph when it swerves and collides with a smart car going the opposite direction at 80 mph. Which vehicle experiences a larger force from the collision? Which experiences a larger acceleration? Please explain why and show some work if possible

Explanation / Answer

Assuming that the semi-truck is heavier than the smart car.

The truck with its velocity of 60 mph is having a momentum of m1x60 kg.m/sec

The smart car with its less mass in comprision to the truck is travelling at a larger velocity of 80 mph

so the momentum of the car is m2x80 kg.m/sec

Now when they collide, the car with larger momentum experiences smaller force opposite to it. Now in this case, since we don't know the exact magnitudes of m1 and m2 we can not really say which will have higher momentum.

As a rule of thumb we can say that the vehicle with ligher momentum experiences the most force due to collision.

When the force is larger, the acceleration would also be larger, that means which ever vehicle is larger will experience the less acceleration.

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