Newton's Third Law of Motion The objective of bumper cars is to hit
as many people as possible while trying not to get
hit yourself. However Newton's third law of motion
states that for every action there is an equal and
opposite reaction. So if you're in a bumper car and
you hit someone, that person will feel a force from
you, but you will also feel a force that is the same
magnitude from them.
Impulse and Momentum The momentum of
an object is defined as its mass multiplied by
its velocity.
Momentum cannot be created or
destroyed, it is conserved. For an object to
gain or lose momentum it must be transferred
in the form of an impulse, which is defined as
a force applied over a small interval time.
Since the impact
forces felt by each bumper car in a collision
are equal and opposite, the impulses applied
on each of the bumper cars are also equal and
opposite in direction. If we were to set the
impulse equations for both bumper cars equal
to each other, we would see that the linear
momentum is conserved for the entire system.
This means that the sum of the initial momenta
of both the bumper cars is equal to the sum of
the final momenta of both the bumper cars.
Safety in Collisions
Now bumper cars can be very fun, but with all of
these collisions, safety becomes a concern. If you
look at a bumper car there is a large rubber ring
that surrounds the outer edge of it, this rubber
reduces the force that is being felt by the
passenger. The rubber increases the time that the
impulse is applied to the bumper car, so if the time
increases than the force must decrease.
