WHich force is larger? -A car is traveling down a highway just barely obeying th

Question

WHich force is larger? -A car is traveling down a highway just barely obeying the speed limit when a mosquito smashes into its windshield. Is it the force the mosquito exerts on the windshield, or the force the windshield exerts on the mosquito? - A doctor taps your knee with a Taylor hammer to examine your reflexes. Is it the force hammer exerts on your knee or the force your knee exerts on the hammer? Many people who are not taking this course would object to these answers. Why is this? How could you convince them your response is correct?

Explanation / Answer

Case 1

Here when mosquito smashes with windshild of car force exerted by mosquito and force exerted by windshield are equal and opposite according to third law of Newton.

To convience this claim we can explain it by conservation of linear momentum, change in momentum is equal for both mosquito and cars' windshield but momentum of car is very large in compare of of mosquito so effect is negligible on car.

Case 2

Here also force exerted by knee on Taylor hammer and force exerted by Taylor hammer on knee are equal and opposite accordind to third law of Newton.

To convince this claim we can say that here your knee is in static condition and hammer is in motion having some momentum when doctor tap hammer on knee it reflect back with same momentum which shows that knee also exert equal force on hammer by avoiding gravitational force on hammer.

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