A Honda Civic and Lincoln Town Car are initially at rest on a horizontal parking lot at the edge of steep cliff. The Town Car has twice as much mass as the Civic. Equal constant forces are applied to each car and they accelerate across equal distances (ignore effects of friction.) When they reach the far end of the lot the force is suddenly removed, whereupon they sail through the air and crash on the ground below.

Question

1.) Which car has the larger impulse imparted to it by the applied force? Explain your answer.
**I think the Town’s Car because impulse=ft, so that would mean that since the Lincoln Car has twice the mass of the Civic, it has more impulse. **

2.) Which car has the greatest momentum at the cliffs edge? Explain your answer.
**The Town Car because the bigger the mass of an object, the more momentum it has. **

3.) Which car has the greater work done on it by the applied force? Explain your answer in terms of distance traveled.
**I think the Town car does because the more kinetic energy something has the more force is applied to it. Since the Town car is traveling a larger distance and it has more kinetic energy, it requires more energy to stop it, so more force is applied.**

Answer 1

1. Sort of. The town car is heavier, so its acceleration is a=F/m, so the acceleration is lower, so more time is spent on the ground. Impulse=F*time
2. momentumchange=impulsechange. See 1.
Your explanation is off target.
3. Think!. work done= force*distance, which is the same for each.