Question

While driving down the road, a firefly strikes the windshield of a bus and makes a quite obvious mess in front of the face of the driver. This is a clear case of Newton's third law of motion. The firefly hit the bus and the bus hits the firefly. Which of the two forces is greater: the force on the firefly or the force on the bus?​

Answer 1

The force on the firefly is greater.

• The force on an object or a body is the cause that changes or tends to change its state of rest or motion. It can be given by the following formula.

        $F = m * a$

• Here, F is the force applied on the object or the body, m is the mass of the object or the body and a is the acceleration produced.
• As evident from the formula, the force is directly proportional to mass and acceleration.
• The mass of the bus is very much greater than the mass of the firefly. Hence, no matter what may be the acceleration of the firefly, the force exerted by the bus on the firefly would be greater.