Assignment:
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? 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 in 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. What about the two drivers? Do they experience the same forces? To answer this question, suppose each vehicle is initially moving at 7.0 m/s and they undergo a perfectly inelastic head-on collision. Each driver has mass 100.0 kg. Including the drivers, the total vehicle masses are 820 kg for the car and 4020 kg for the truck.
- If the collision time is 0.080 s, what force does the seatbelt exert on the truck driver?
- What average force does the seatbelt exert on the car driver?
Solve in Newtons