Question

quiz
44:15
time remaining
1
multiple choice 1 point
a car is driving along the road when a fly hits the windshield. which of the following explains why the car is relatively unaffected by the collision but the fly is squashed?
the fly has less mass than the car, so the force it experience will cause a greater amount of acceleration than the car would experience.
the fly experiences a greater force than the car does because it has less mass than the car
the fly was not as strong as the car, therefore the force it experiences is too great to overcome
the fly has less mass than the car, therefore it will experience less acceleration than the car

Explanation:

According to Newton's second law \(F = ma\) (where \(F\) is force, \(m\) is mass, and \(a\) is acceleration), when the force \(F\) (from the collision) acts on two objects (car and fly), for the fly with very small mass \(m_{fly}\), the acceleration \(a_{fly}=\frac{F}{m_{fly}}\) is very large (since \(m_{fly}\) is small). For the car with large mass \(m_{car}\), the acceleration \(a_{car}=\frac{F}{m_{car}}\) is very small (since \(m_{car}\) is large). Also, according to Newton's third law, the force on the fly and the force on the car are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.

Answer:

The fly has less mass than the car, so the force it experience will cause a greater amount of acceleration than the car would experience.