The behaviour of the front of a racing car in an accident is very carefully tested...

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The behaviour of the front of a racing car in an accident is very carefully tested at the design stage by swinging a huge pendulum at a fixed car. Suppose the pendulum has a bob of mass 500 kg, is of length 5.0 m, is released from an angle of 45° to the vertical, and strikes the car when the pendulum is vertical. The front of the car is squashed in by 0.30 m. Suppose that the designers have achieved their aim of providing a constant force in the collision, and that all the energy of the bob at impact is expended in mechanically squashing the front of the car (i.e. that heating, frictional and sound effects are negligible). Assume also that air resistance can be ignored. What is the magnitude of the force exerted on impact? The behaviour of the front of a racing car in an accident is very carefully tested at the design stage by swinging a huge pendulum at a fixed car. Suppose the pendulum has a bob of mass 500 kg, is of length 5.0 m, is released from an angle of 45° to the vertical, and strikes the car when the pendulum is vertical. The front of the car is squashed in by 0.30 m. Suppose that the designers have achieved their aim of providing a constant force in the collision, and that all the energy of the bob at impact is expended in mechanically squashing the front of the car (i.e. that heating, frictional and sound effects are negligible). Assume also that air resistance can be ignored. What is the magnitude of the force exerted on impact?

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