A small car meshes with a large truck in a head-on collision.Which of the following statements concerning the momentum during the collision are correct? (There could be more than one correct choice. )
A)The momentum of the truck is conserved.
B)The momentum of the car is conserved.
C)The car and the truck must undergo the same change in speed.
D)The momentum of the car and the momentum of the truck are each conserved.
E)The momentum of the car-truck system is conserved,but the momentum of each one separately is not conserved.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

In a collision, the momentum of the car and the truck individually is not conserved as they experience external forces due to the collision. However, the total momentum of the car-truck system is conserved, as there are no external forces acting on the system. The speeds of the car and the truck may not change by the same amount during the collision, so statement C is not necessarily true. Statements A, B, and D are incorrect as they suggest that the momentum of each object is conserved individually, which is not true in a collision with external forces.

A Small Car Meshes with a Large Truck in a Head-On