Question

In a traffic collision, the bigger the vehicle and the faster it's traveling, ____?

1) the more damage it will cause
2) the less damage it will cause
3) the more likely it will avoid collision
4) the less likely it will avoid collision

Answer 1

In a traffic collision, larger and faster vehicles cause more damage due to having greater kinetic energy. Crumple zones in vehicles reduce injury by extending the time of impact and lessening force. Momentum conservation dictates that the total system momentum remains constant during a collision.

Step-by-step explanation:

In a traffic collision, the bigger the vehicle and the faster it's traveling, the more damage it will cause. This is because damage from collisions is largely dependent on the kinetic energy of the vehicle, which is directly proportional to its mass and the square of its velocity. A larger, faster vehicle has more kinetic energy to be dissipated in a collision, often resulting in more significant damage.

Crumple zones in modern cars aim to increase the time of impact during a collision, thereby decreasing the force experienced by the occupants and, consequently, reducing injury. This is because by increasing the time over which the car's momentum changes, the rate of momentum change (the force) is reduced.

According to the principle of conservation of momentum, the total momentum of a system before a collision is equal to the total momentum after, assuming no external forces act on the system. This holds true regardless of whether the collision is elastic or inelastic. The final velocity of the combined wreckage in an inelastic collision is determined by the principle of conservation of momentum.