in the moments before you hit a truck, you decide to calculate the impulsive force (impulse) you will feel. you and your bike have a combined mass of 120kg and the truck brings you to a halt in 0.3s. What is your impulse?
To calculate the impulse, we can use Newton's second law, which states that the force acting on an object is equal to the rate of change of its momentum.
The momentum (p) of an object is given by the product of its mass (m) and velocity (v): p = m * v.
In this case, we need to calculate the impulse, which is equal to the change in momentum. Since you come to a halt, your initial momentum is p_initial = m * v_initial, and your final momentum is p_final = m * v_final, where v_initial is your initial velocity and v_final is your final velocity (which is zero in this scenario).
Since the time taken to bring you to a halt is 0.3s, we can use the equation:
impulse = p_final - p_initial = m * v_final - m * v_initial
Substituting the given values:
m = 120 kg
v_final = 0 m/s (your final velocity)
v_initial = ? (unknown)
To find v_initial, we need more information.