You are a professionalwitness in a lawsuit. What do you tell the judge? (Read th

Question

You are a professionalwitness in a lawsuit. What do you tell the judge? (Read thefollowing scenario.)

You are on an RTD StretchBus (the long busses with the accordion in the middle. (This iscalled an articulating bus.)) The bus is fully loaded with fuel andpeople. You are traveling at 30 [mph] when a mini-Van in front ofthe bus pulls in front of the bus as it travels in a similardirection; the van is traveling 20 [mph]. The bus driver slams onthe brakes, but there is black ice so the bus gracefully slidesright into the van sending the van flying ahead. Three passengers,upon realizing their opportunity to make some quick cash, startcrying of back and neck pain.

Mass of bus + passengers +fuel is about 66,600 [lb] or 30,200 [kg].

Mass of van is about 2,000[kg].

Forensics estimates fromthe bending of the light-pole that the van was moving at anuninhibited speed of about 35 [mph] when it hit the pole aftersliding on ice.

You are a professionalwitness; what is your statement to the judge and why? (Three otherpassengers tell the judge they didn't even feel the collision. Theyheard it and saw the van fly forward; but they claim they feltnothing.)

Explanation / Answer

The idea is that you can calculate the change in the speed ofthe bus by using conservation of momentum. .       initial momentum of bus + init momentum of van = final momentum ofbus + final momentum of van .          30200 *30      +     2000 *20     =    30200 *v     +    2000 * 35 .         divide everythingby   30200 .            30    +   1.3245    =    v    +   2.3179 .        v =     29      so thespeed of the bus is    29 mph after thecollision. This means the bus was slowed from 30 down to 29mph...    a difference that the passengers wouldbarely have noticed. This is why some people were honest andclaimed they felt nothing, while some people are being dishonestand claim they were injured. If slowing down by 1 mph were enoughto cause injury, we would be injured every time we apply the brakesin our own cars.

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