Question

A driver is texting without seeing the traffic ahead and crashes into a stationary vehicle. Explain what happens to the kinetic energy. Answer in 4-6 sentences.

Answer 1

By Principle of Energy Conservation, the car in motion have an entire inelastic collision with the stationary vehicle, meaning that a part of the energy is dissipated due to inelastic deformation in both cars and resulting kinetic energy is lower, then the remaining kinetic energy is dissipated gradually due to friction between tires and ground by Work-Energy Theorem.

Step-by-step explanation:

By Principle of Energy Conservation, the car in motion have an entire inelastic collision with the stationary vehicle, meaning that a part of the energy is dissipated due to inelastic deformation in both cars and resulting kinetic energy is lower, then the remaining kinetic energy is dissipated gradually due to friction between tires and ground by Work-Energy Theorem.