two people collide on a busy city street. What information is needed to calculate the force one of the people exerts on the other person?

a. the mass and acceleration of each person
b. the location of the collision
c. the speed of each person
d. the velocity of each person

1 answer

To calculate the force one person exerts on the other during a collision, you primarily need to determine the change in momentum per unit time, which can be related to the accelerations involved.

Given this, the correct answer is:

a. the mass and acceleration of each person

Knowing the mass allows you to calculate the momentum, and the acceleration (which would be the change in velocity over time) is needed to determine the force using Newton's second law (F = ma). While speed and velocity provide information about how fast they were moving before the collision, it is the mass and acceleration that directly relate to the force exerted during the impact.