Can a bullet and a truck have the same momentum? Explain.?

Answer 1

Yes. A truck has more mass, but
Momentum = mass * velocity
so if the trucks velocity is very slow and the bullets velocity is very fast, then they can have the same momentum.

Answer 2

Momentum factors in mass and velocity. A truck has much greater mass than a bullet, so, even at their relative speeds, it takes much more work (energy) to stop it.

A human being's body, for instance can stop a speeding bullet. It won't be pretty, and can be very messy, but the bullet can be stopped.

On the other hand, a human being cannot stand in front of a semi truck and expect it to stop. It won't, and the result will be even messier.

Now, take the same bullet and toss it at someone by hand, as fast as a person can do it, and you can clearly see that it will have much less momentum than if fired out of a gun. That bullet will do very little harm to a targeted human. Accelerate the truck to the same speed as the thrown bullet, and that truck will still roll right over the unfortunate person standing in the way.

At this, much slower speed, you can clearly see how much less momentum the bullet has than the truck.

I have to disagree with the person that the truck and the bullet CAN have the same momentum. The bullet would have to be moving at an impossible rate of speed to carry with it anywhere near the energy potential of even a very slow truck.

Try this thought experiment. A bullet is fired at the front of a truck with steel plate welded to its front bumper. Will the bullet push the truck backwards? I'm guessing not. There will not be enough momentum in the bullet to overcome the truck's inertial

Inertia is the inverse of momentum.

You can even imagine this experiment in a frictionless environment. In space, the bullet firing at the weightless truck. The truck may move back upon impact, but not very fast. The bullet bounces off the steel plate VERY rapidly.

Answer 3

Theoretically yes. Practically, no. Momentum is determined by calculating mass times velocity. Keep increasing the speed of the bullet and decreasing the speed of the truck and at some point the momentum would be the same.

I'm too lazy to drag out my old physics book and calculate with the Newtonian equations what that speed would be. Would need to know how big a bullet we're talking about, anyway, how big a truck we're talking about, and how fast the truck was moving. But it would certainly be a speed well beyond anything we are capable of propelling a bullet to with existing or even foreseable technology. Assuming, that is, you are talking about a standard 150 to 500 grain high-powered rifle bullet.

If you are talking about a REALLY big bullet, like the compact-car sized ones the Germans used in those gargantuan "Paris Guns." Well, that would be a horse of a different color under the bridge.

shrugs

Answer 4

momentum = mass times velocity

I would think that a truck going 40 mph would have more momentum than a bullet going the speed of sould because of the damage it could do if a 1/4 inch rod were welded to the bumper and you drove into a wall (of course if the rod could not break) I would think it could be driven much farther into wood than a bullet (which would only penetrate a few inches. I'm doing the math

3000 lb light truck at 40mph (60 feet per second)
= 180,000

2500 feet per second bullet weighing 1 ounce
= 156

truck by far at 40 mph

lower speed 10 mph
= 45,000

higher speed bullet 5000 fps
= 312

have to be going pretty darn slow for the bullet to win

Answer 5

yes they can

momentum depends on velocity and mass.

so if the truck is not moving and the bullet is, then the bullet has more momentum.

if the bullet is extremely fast and the truck is reaaaaalllly slow, they could have the same momentum.

Answer 6

Yes. Just see to it that the mass of the bullet multiplied by its velocity will be equal to the mass of truck multiplied by its velocity.

Here's the equation involved:

Momentum of bullet=Momentum of truck
Momentum as you know is equal to mass,m*velocity,v. Therefore,

mV of bullet=Mv of truck.

Answer 7

If the bullet's small mass and high speed equal a truck with large mass and slow speed they could be equal.

Did you have a particular experiment in mind to verify that?