. A bird accidentally collides with the windshield of a speeding UDS school bus, which experiences the greater acceleration?
Question
. A bird accidentally collides with the windshield of a speeding UDS school bus, which experiences the greater acceleration?
Solution
The bird experiences the greater acceleration. Here's why:
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Newton's Second Law of Motion states that the force exerted on an object equals its mass times its acceleration (F=ma). When the bird and the bus collide, they exert equal and opposite forces on each other according to Newton's Third Law of Motion.
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However, the bird and the bus have vastly different masses. The bus's mass is much larger than the bird's.
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Since the forces are equal and acceleration equals force divided by mass (a=F/m), the object with the smaller mass (the bird) will experience a greater acceleration.
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Therefore, the bird experiences a greater acceleration upon collision with the bus.
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