Most of us know intuitively that in a head-on collision between a large dump truck and a

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Most of us know intuitively that in a head-on collision between a large dump truck and a subcompact car, you are better off being in the truck than in the car. Why is this? Many people imagine that the collision force exerted on the car is much greater than that experienced by the truck. To substantiate this view, they point out that the car is crushed, whereas the truck is only dented. This idea of unequal forces, of course, is false. Newton’s third law tells us that both objects experience forces of the same magnitude. The truck suffers less damage because it is made of stronger metal. But what about the two drivers? Do they experience the same forces? To answer this question, suppose that each vehicle is initially moving at 8.00 m/s and that they undergo a perfectly inelastic head-on collision. Each driver has mass 80.0 kg. Including the drivers, the total vehicle masses are 800 kg for the car and 4 000 kg for the truck. If the collision time is 0.120 s, what force does the seatbelt exert on each driver?
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Physics

ISBN: 978-1118486894

10th edition

Authors: David Young, Shane Stadler

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