PHYSICS · Multi-part · CBSE · Physics · Laws of Motion · Laws of Motion
Problem
During a collision on a highway, a mosquito flying at 2m/s strikes the windshield of a moving bus travelling at 20m/s in the opposite direction and gets stuck.
(i) At the instant of contact, which exerts the larger force—the mosquito on the bus or the bus on the mosquito? Justify your answer without calculation.
(ii) Explain why the mosquito suffers a much larger change in velocity than the bus, even though the forces are as stated in part (i).
(iii) Using Newton's Second Law, discuss how the difference in mass of the two bodies leads to the observed difference in their accelerations.