Teaching Physics with the Physics Suite

Edward F. Redish

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Pushing a Porsche

Making a rest stop at a service station on the highway, the driver of a pickup truck turned off his truck, left it in neutral, and ran into the building, forgetting to set his emergency brake. Unfortunately, he was parked on a slight incline and the truck started to roll down.

When the truck got to the bottom of the incline, the road was flat and smooth and the truck rolled on without slowing significantly. After traveling a short distance, it ran into a Porsche.   The driver of the Porsche also had left her car in neutral without setting the emergency brake. (Bad idea!) The truck was going pretty slowly and had a rubber bumper so when it hit the car, the car bounced off doing some damage, but not totaling the car. For the period of the collision, friction with the ground was negligible.

Here are the parameters of what happened.

a) What was the speed of the car after the collision? Explain how you know.

b) Is the information given enough to calculate the average force felt by the car? If so, calculate it. If not, explain why not.

c) Is the information given enough to calculate the average force felt by the truck? If so, calculate it. If not, explain why not.

d) How much mechanical energy was lost in the collision, if any? (This will determine how much damage the bumpers suffered.)


Page last modified January 29, 2008: P&E26