Question

A golf cart occupied by a single distracted driver slams into an identical golf cart occupied by six adult passengers. the bumpers of the two golf carts lock together. assume no momentum is transferred to the surrounding environment (earth, air) in this process.

A) Both carts experience the same magnitude of momentum change.
B) The less massive (single passenger) cart experiences a greater magnitude of momentum change.
C) The more massive (six passengers) cart experiences a greater magnitude of momentum change.

Answer 1

Both golf carts experience the same magnitude of momentum change during a collision due to the conservation of momentum and Newton's third law of motion.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question discusses a scenario where two golf carts with different masses due to the number of passengers collide and lock bumpers, involving the principle of conservation of momentum. In physics, especially when dealing with collisions, the total momentum of a system is conserved if there is no external force acting on it. This means that the change in momentum (Δp) of one object must be equal and opposite to the change in momentum of the other object, assuming no momentum is lost to the environment.

In the case of the two golf carts colliding, both golf carts experience the same magnitude of momentum change but in opposite directions; this is because the force during the collision acts equally on both carts for the same amount of time, according to Newton's third law of motion. Therefore, the correct answer to the student's question is A) Both carts experience the same magnitude of momentum change.