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2 cars of same mass with UNEQUAL acceleration are moving towards each other. which car will suffer a greater amount of damage? Will the momentum be conserved? pls explain why?

2 cars of same mass with UNEQUAL acceleration are moving towards each other. which car will suffer a greater amount of damage? Will the momentum be conserved? pls explain why?

Grade:9

3 Answers

Fawz Naim
37 Points
13 years ago

Both the cars will have the velocity zero in the same time. The car having more acc will have comparatively more velocity than the other car. Therefore change in its momentum in the given time will be more. The car having more change in momentum will be damaged more. It is so because according to the impulse momentum theorem impulse is equal to the change in momentum. So the car having more change in momentum will suffer a greater impact. 

Aniket Patra
48 Points
13 years ago

The car having lesser accelaration will suffer more damage..The car moving with greater accelaration will have more velocity and so more momentum and also the impulse exerted by it on the other car will be more because it will have generated more force.Here momentum conservation cannot be applied in horizontal direction.

Fawz Naim
37 Points
13 years ago

Both the cars are moving with different acc therefore their velocities will be different. When they will collide then both of them will be stopped in the same time i.e. they will undergo change of momentum to come to rest. The car having more velocity before collision will undergo more change of momentum as compared to the other car. By the impulse-momentum theorem, we know that impulse is equal to the change in momentum. As impulse is the product of force and time of impact (time of impact is same for both the cars), the car undergoing more change in momentum will experience a large force and it will be damaged more.   

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