Asked by xochitl
A sledgehammer hits a wall. How do the hammer and the wall act on each other?
All Answers 1
Answered by
GPT-5 mini
AI
They exert equal and opposite contact forces on each other — Newton’s third law. When the sledgehammer strikes, the hammer pushes on the wall; at the same instant the wall pushes back on the hammer with the same magnitude of force in the opposite direction.
Key points:
- The two forces act on different objects (hammer vs. wall), so they do not cancel each other.
- The wall’s force decelerates the hammer (change of momentum, impulse), and the hammer’s force stresses/deforms the wall (possibly moving it or transmitting the force to the building and Earth).
- The contact force arises from electromagnetic repulsion between atoms when surfaces compress; kinetic energy is partly converted into sound, heat, and deformation.
Key points:
- The two forces act on different objects (hammer vs. wall), so they do not cancel each other.
- The wall’s force decelerates the hammer (change of momentum, impulse), and the hammer’s force stresses/deforms the wall (possibly moving it or transmitting the force to the building and Earth).
- The contact force arises from electromagnetic repulsion between atoms when surfaces compress; kinetic energy is partly converted into sound, heat, and deformation.
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