Ravi and Raju went for a morning walk. They saw a speeding car hitting over an another stationary car which was parked on the road side. Answer the following questions which they both were discussing about. (i) What type of collision is it? (ii) Was the speeding car having greater momentum? If so why? (iii) On what law, the above incident is based on?
Answers
Answer:
Kiran's statement:
Change in momentum of the insect and the motorcar is equal by conservation of momentum. The velocity of insect changes significantly because its mass is very small compared to the motorcar. Similarly, the velocity of motorcar is very insignificant because its mass is very large compared to the insect. Hence, Kiran's statement is false.
Akhtar's statement:
By newton's third law of motion, action and reaction force are equal and opposite and they act on different bodies. Hence, the motorcar and insect both experience the same force. Since the mass of the insect is very small compared to the motorcar, it suffers a huge change of velocity as compared to the car. Due to this, insect dies. Hence, Akhtar's statement is false.
Rahul's Statement:
As discussed before, both the motorcar and the insect experience the same force and change in momentum. Hence, Rahul's statement is correct.
Answer:
(i) This is head on collision, elastic and non elastic will depend upon the final velocities of car.
(ii) Assuming that the both cars have apx. same mass, speeding car will have more momentum due to its velocity.
P=mv
(iii) Law of conservation of momentum.