1) A driver slams on his breaks and his coffee flies out of the cup holder and spills all over the car. What property of the coffee drink causes it to keep moving forward?
2) The scenario most closely relates to which one of Newton's Laws, explain?
Answers
Answer:
Suppose you are in a car and you have a cup of coffee in the cup holder. If you were to take the lid of the cup off you will notice that as you accelerate the coffee moves towards the back of the car. This is similar to the standing in a bus example we went over earlier.
If while driving you suddenly step on the gas or slam on the brakes, what do you think would happen to the coffee? How would the coffee's motion change?
Of course the coffee would spill, tilting backwards when you accelerate and tilting forwards when you break. This is due to the coffee wanting to resist changes in it motion. When you break the coffee wants to keep moving forward at the same speed the car was moving at previously, however when it does so it goes over the rim of the cup and spills over.