Car crashes and Newtons law of motion PDF

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The final assignment for PHY 102 great course...

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Gabriella Ortiz College Name, Grand Canyon University Course Number: PHY 102 Lillian Flakes 11/21/2021

2 Car Crashes and Newtons Law The aim of physics is to find the unified sets of laws governing matter, motion, and energy at small distances in a human scale of everyday life. (Brown, n.d.) This is where Newtons three laws of motion come into play during our everyday lives. Newtons three laws of motion are the law of inertia, acceleration, and action/reaction. When a person is in a car accident, all three laws can be applied. From the initial hit from another car or object, how fast or slow you were going, and lastly the force applied from the accident. Speed of the car and seatbelts also plays a role in the severity of the accident.

According to (Hewitt, Suchocki, & Hewitt, 2017) “The law of inertia is every object in motion stays in motion when an object at rest stays at rest, unless acted upon by a net force.” Every object continues in a state of rest or uniform speed in a straight line unless acted on by a nonzero force. (Hewitt, Suchocki, & Hewitt, 2017) The key word in this law is continues. An object continues to do whatever it happens to be doing unless a force is exerted upon it. (Hewitt, Suchocki, & Hewitt, 2017) When a car at a stop light gets rear ended their car is jerked forward from the impact. As a car hits a wall which cannot be moved, there is an unbalanced force that acts upon the car to abruptly stop the car in motion. The same goes for the passengers in the car. If they have their seatbelts on that will stop them from flying forward during the impact. If they are not wearing a seatbelt there is a high probability that they will fly out during the impact. (The Physics Classroom Website, n.d.)

(Hewitt, Suchocki, & Hewitt, 2017) states “the law of acceleration is produced by a net force on an object is directly proportional to the net force as in the same direction as the net force

3 and is inversely proportional to the mass of the object.” Acceleration equals net force divided by the mass. If the net force acting on an object is doubled, the objects acceleration will be doubled. (Hewitt, Suchocki, & Hewitt, 2017) This is why the car and passengers who get hit jolts forward when getting hit from behind. They are forced in the direction of the car coming straight at them. According to (Deziel, 2017) “the force required to stop a 150-pound person going 60 miles per hour in 5 seconds is 1,800 pounds.” Once the car hits something and stops suddenly the force goes up to 9,000 pounds. Without seatbelts the impact of that measure is enough to instantly kill a person. When wearing your seatbelt, it supplies the force to decelerate you in the event of a car accident. As the car stops you keep moving until something supplies a force in the opposite direction. (Deziel, 2017)

Newtons last law of motion is “whenever one object exerts a force on a second object the second object exerts an equal and opposite force.” (Hewitt, Suchocki, & Hewitt, 2017) A way to identify action and reaction is by identifying one thing interaction with another. (Hewitt, Suchocki, & Hewitt, 2017) Seatbelts play a major role with Newtons third law and car crashes. If you are not wearing a seatbelt and you are in an accident you will go flying into the dashboard or window. As you hit the object in front of you the same object hits you back with the same amount of force that you applied. (Mutch, 2015) Which is called action and reaction. Another example of Newtons third law and car crashes is when two cars each with different masses are driving on an icy road and collide into one another. The force on both cars would be the same, but the acceleration for the smaller car’s mass would be greater. The heavier cars acceleration would be less than the smaller one. (Mutch, 2015)

4 In conclusion Newtons laws of motion are important to know in everyday life. Car accidents are the best examples of the laws of motion. “During an accident energy is transferred from the vehicle to whatever it hits. Depending on the variables that alter the state of motion causes injuries and damage cars. The object that was struck will absorb the energy and possibly transfer the energy back.” (Jones, 2008) The physics in car accidents apply to every visible thing around us.

5 References Brown, L. (n.d.). physics. Encyclopædia Britannica; Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved November 21, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/science/physics-science

Deziel, C. (2017, April 24). Seat Belts & Newton’s Second Law of Motion | Sciencing. Sciencing. https://sciencing.com/seat-newtons-second-law-motion-5522518.html

Hewitt, P. G., Suchocki, J., & Hewitt, L. A. (2017). Conceptual physical science (6 ed.). San Francisco, CA: th Pearson/Addison Wesley. ISBN-13: 9780134060491

Jones, A. Z. (2008, August 22). The Physics of a Car Collision. ThoughtCo; ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-the-physics-of-a-car-collision-2698920

Mutch, C. (2015). How Newton’s Third Law is Involved in Car Crashes by carter mutch. Prezi.Com. https://prezi.com/xi7soofwn-8q/how-newtons-third-law-is-involved-in-carcrashes/

The Physics Classroom Website. (n.d.). The Physics Classroom. Retrieved November 21, 2021, from https://www.physicsclassroom.com/mmedia/newtlaws/cci.cfm...