a) insufficent information
b) the bug
c) both the same
d) the car
Please help! :)
If a car travels down a road and a bug hits the windshield, which bears the greater change of momentum?
ah, the bug.
(b)
If a car travels down a road and a bug hits the windshield, which bears the greater change of momentum?
Well, the bug goes splat and then is headed the other way (albeit as a windshield smear)...the car isn't even appreciably slowed down. B!
You know C and D are wrong unless bug/car collisions start totalling cars (boy wouldn't that raise insurance rates?). A is just a copout.
B) the bug
A) This would be the correct answer, but most of the time when a bug hits a windshield the car is going over 30 mph so we can assume in this case that this is true.
B) The momentum of the bug is its weight (minor) X its speed (slow) for a total momentum of insignificant lets call it 1 lb/ft/sec for a huge bug that has been hipped up on sugar and shot out of a cannon.
C) The end up both the same only AFTER the collision.
D) The car's momentum is its weight (tons) x 30 mph (fast) which equals huge lets call it 1,000 lbs/ft/sec for a speeding lawn mower.
When you compare (1,000 lb/ft/sec) huge vs. (1 lb/ft/sec) insignificant the poor bug has no choice but to go splat after suffering a HUGE change in it鈥檚 momentum enough to defeat the structural integrity of the insect shell itself.
I think that it's C. This uses Newton's 3rd Law. For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. The bug applies the same amount of force on the windshield as the windshield applies on the bug. However because the bug has a significantly smaller mass than the car, it can not withstand the large acceleration from the collision. Maybe I'm answering the wrong question though? The forces are the same but the momentum might be different? I don't know, but I think it's C.
