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A bus of mass 25 tons starts to travel along a straight road from A to B at 50 mph. At the same time a bee of mass 2.5 grams starts to fly from B to A along the same road at 5 mph. Eventually the bee and the bus collide.
Assume the bee impacts a surface of the bus which is flat and at right angles to its direction of travel, such as the windscreen, and the bee sticks to this surface.
Then the bus will be slowed by a tiny amount reflecting the relative masses / momenta of the bee and bus. In addition, relative to A, the velocity of the bee changes from -5 mph to +50 (approximately) mph during the collision. So at some stage during the collision the bee must be stationary. This can only be when the bee is in contact with the bus.
The question is : Why is the bus not stationary at the same time?
Does it make any difference to the situation if the bee is replaced by either a perfectly elastic object, or a perfectly rigid object, of the same mass?
And does it make any difference if the collision is considered at the level of the individual atoms involved? Ionlywanttoknow ( talk) 18:40, 11 February 2024 (UTC)
Science desk | ||
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< February 10 | << Jan | February | Mar >> | February 12 > |
Welcome to the Wikipedia Science Reference Desk Archives |
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The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages. |
A bus of mass 25 tons starts to travel along a straight road from A to B at 50 mph. At the same time a bee of mass 2.5 grams starts to fly from B to A along the same road at 5 mph. Eventually the bee and the bus collide.
Assume the bee impacts a surface of the bus which is flat and at right angles to its direction of travel, such as the windscreen, and the bee sticks to this surface.
Then the bus will be slowed by a tiny amount reflecting the relative masses / momenta of the bee and bus. In addition, relative to A, the velocity of the bee changes from -5 mph to +50 (approximately) mph during the collision. So at some stage during the collision the bee must be stationary. This can only be when the bee is in contact with the bus.
The question is : Why is the bus not stationary at the same time?
Does it make any difference to the situation if the bee is replaced by either a perfectly elastic object, or a perfectly rigid object, of the same mass?
And does it make any difference if the collision is considered at the level of the individual atoms involved? Ionlywanttoknow ( talk) 18:40, 11 February 2024 (UTC)