Recent content by Decaff

Thanks, I think I have it down now. Impulse affects the peak forces.

If the balls are equal mass, then the steel ball would deform less, causing more force in the collision due to the objects not giving any "leeway," similar to the "Crush Zones" of cars. But the Clay ball being softer, gives way to the knife, which means less force is applied?

I assume the knife fairs worse against the steel ball because it's heavier, which increases the force. As for the impulse, from my understanding, the steel ball would have a high impulse while the clay ball might have a lower impulse.

I think the hardness and density of the steel ball would be too much for the knife to handle.

Well, I'm not very experienced with physics, and this topic comes from a conversation I had with a friend. I know F = M*A, so the falling clay has Force. My friend thinks the knife point would be hit by all that force, while I thought the smaller area of the knife point would only subject it to...

I don't know a whole about physics, so bear with me. F = M*A, so the falling clay has force. My question is, would the tip of the knife be subject to all of that force or just a portion of it before the knife dug into the clay.

I have a question regarding the collision of two objects, specifically something heavy falling on something with a point. For example, if a 50lb ball of clay fell from 10 meters onto the point of a knife, would the knife's point have to withstand the entire force of the clay before the blade...