Question

1. while driving down the road, an unfortunate bug strikes the windshield of a bus. quite obviously, this is a case of newtons third law of motion. the bug hit the bus and the windshield hits the bug. which of the two forces is greater: the force on the bug or the force on the bus? explain your reasoning. restate newtons 3rd law out loud before you try to answer this question. (remember this from the \pop quiz?)

Explanation:

Newton's third law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In this case, the bug exerts a force on the bus (action), and the bus exerts an equal - magnitude force on the bug (reaction). The difference in their accelerations (the bug splatters while the bus moves on seemingly unaffected) is due to their different masses ($F = ma$, so for the same force $F$, a smaller mass $m$ has a larger acceleration $a$).

Answer:

The forces are equal. According to Newton's third law of motion, when two objects interact, the force exerted by object A on object B is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force exerted by object B on object A. So, the force on the bug and the force on the bus are equal.