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A small car traveling along a road at high speed loses control. The driver has a choice-collide with a solid concrete wall or with an oncoming fully loaded 10-ton truck, also moving at high speed. Which choice results in the more serious collision? Assume in both cases that the small car is at rest after the collision. (A) The collision with the truck (B) The collision with the concrete wall (C) The collision would be equally serious, since the same impulse is imported to the car in either case. (D) More information is needed to assess the collisions.

A small car traveling along a road at high speed loses control. The driver has a choice-collide with a solid concrete wall or with an oncoming fully loaded 10-ton truck, also moving at high speed. Which choice results in the more serious collision? Assume in both cases that the small car is at rest after the collision.
(A) The collision with the truck
(B) The collision with the concrete wall
(C) The collision would be equally serious, since the same impulse is imported to the car in either case.
(D) More information is needed to assess the collisions.

Grade:upto college level

3 Answers

Kevin Nash
askIITians Faculty 332 Points
8 years ago
The correct option is (A) the collision with the truck.
The change in velocity or momentum in small car brought by the truck during the collision time will be greater for this case relative to that brought by wall. So the impulse of force is more for the same time in the case of head on collision between the small car and fully loaded 10-ton truck than the collision between the small car and concrete wall. Therefore, the small car collision with the fully loaded 10-ton truck is more serious than the collision between small car and solid concrete wall. Thus option (A) is correct.
Sourabh Kumar
15 Points
6 years ago
The above explanation is completely wrong since the change in momentum of car in both the cases are same i.e the car is brought to rest from its certain initial velocity,hence we can say that impulse on car is same for both the cases, but time of collision between car and truck is less as compare to car and concrete wall thus large force acted on car during car and truck collision i.e Force = Product of Impulse and Time
Sourabh Kumar
15 Points
6 years ago
The above explanation is completely wrong since the change in momentum of car in both the cases are same i.e the car is brought to rest from its certain initial velocity,hence we can say that impulse on car is same for both the cases, but time of collision between car and truck is less as compare to car and concrete wall thus large force acted on car during car and truck collision i.e Force=Impulse/ Time (sorry for mistake in writing formulae in above comment)
 
 

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