After travelling all night, you are driving down a narrow country lane. You brie
ID: 1412420 • Letter: A
Question
After travelling all night, you are driving down a narrow country lane. You briefly fall asleep at the wheel, but wake up as the car moves off the shoulder of the road. You wake up but rapidly lose control of the car and it zooms off the road. You are heading towards (1) a stack of bales of hay, or (2) a brick wall. You have seconds to choose, and luckily you choose to hit the hay stack and come to a stop. Compare in detail the cases of hitting the brick wall versus hitting the hay stack. In which scenario do you transfer more momentum? In which scenario is your impulse larger? In which scenario is the force on the car largest? In which scenario do you experience the larges acceleration? Explain why using physical principles you have learned.
Explanation / Answer
The car comes to rest in both cases. So change in momentum is same in both the cases. This implies transfer of momentum is same in both the cases.
As change in momentum is impulse and it is equal in both the cases. So impulse is same in both the cases.
Force will be larger in case of hot against bick wall.
As impulse is Ft and force is mre in case of hit with brick wall, time of impact is less in case of brick wall and more in case of ha stack. So more decelaration in case of hit against brick wall.