Egg Car Crash

[Jessibaca]

Situation: A wood car with 2 eggs as passengers goes down a 2.43 meter ramp at 40 degrees. The car has a crumple zone on the front to absorb some impact. If the car bounces when it hit the cement block at the end of the ramp, how will the bouncing affect the force the car experiences on impact? [g)]

[Cliff_J]

Have you studied the difference between an elastic, inelastic, and plastic collision?

[Jessibaca]

I've studied the different collisions a little, but I still don't understand what affects of the different types of collisions.

[Cliff_J]

Lets assume a perfectly elastic collision versus a perfectly inelastic collision (plastic). So a typical example is a steel ball and a round piece of putty both striking a very hard surface.

If you look at the speed over time, and use the same interval for the collision time, what happens in terms of acceleration forces?

We know the steel ball starts at X speed and ends up at X speed, whereas the putty starts at the same X speed and ends up at zero.

Cliff

[JohnDubYa]

The force is a vector, and is proportional to the acceleration, which is also a vector.

Given that the acceleration is a vector, which system represents a larger average acceleration? A ball hitting a wall and sticking to it, or a ball hitting a wall and bouncing backwards?