Question

A 1000kg truck traveling at 15m/s has the choice of hitting a brick wall or a line of bushes. Which is the better choice. Use momentum, impulse and law of conservation of momentum in your reasoning

Answer 1

The better choice is the line of bushes.

Step-by-step explanation:

Momentum is defined as the force in a time interval. But the linear momentum is also equal to the product of mass by Velocity.

`P=m*v\\P=1000*15\\P=15000[kg*m/s]`

Now assuming that the truck hits the wall in a very short time interval, i.e. around 0.5 [s], we can calculate the force of the impact.

`P=F*t\\15000=F*0.5\\F=30000[N]`

While if you enter a region of bushes. It won't crash with a solid object. Therefore the bushes will not develop a great impact force on the truck.