A truck is dented less in a collision simply because it is made of stronger meta

Question

A truck is dented less in a collision simply because it is made of stronger metal than the car. As for the drivers, the force that the truck driver feels from his seat belt and the force the passenger car driver feel from his seat belt are not interaction pairs and so are not necessarily equal. In fact we can calculate these from momentum considerations. Suppose by way of example that each car is traveling at 30.0 mph and that the car and truck are heading toward each other. Assume also that they undergo a perfectly inelastic collision. The mass of the drivers are each 70.0 kg, the mass of the car is 800 kg and the mass of the truck is 4000 kg. Find the ratio of the force upon the car driver from his seatbelt to the force upon the truck driver from his own seatbelt. (magnitude only, i.e. do not include any negative signs)

Explanation / Answer

Each will experience a force with a ratio dependent on vehicle + driver masses. (4,070/870) = 4.678:1, the car driver having the worst outcome (4.678 x the force on the truck driver).

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