Final answer:
Bumper cars demonstrate Newton's third law of motion by exerting equal and opposite forces on each other during collisions, causing both cars to experience a push in opposite directions.
Step-by-step explanation:
Bumper cars at an amusement park are a classic demonstration of Newton's third law of motion, which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When two bumper cars collide, each car exerts a force on the other. The first car pushes on the second car, and according to Newton's third law, the second car pushes back with an equal force in the opposite direction. This is why when the cars hit each other, they both experience a push in opposite directions.
Similar to other examples like a professor walking and pushing backward on the floor, or a car accelerating because the ground pushes on the drive wheels in reaction to the drive wheels pushing back on the ground, bumper car collisions illustrate this principle vividly. Each driver feels the reaction force from the other car, which might cause them to bounce backward after the impact. This happens because of the mutual forces they exert on each other during the collision. These forces are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction, perfectly exemplifying Newton's third law.