physics==urgent?

Question

this is due tomorrow...where can i start/a step by step solution would be great...

http://img74.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img012brz6.jpg

way too hard

Answer 1

It is obvious the driver of the car is lying. The truck is much more massive than the car. For the resulting vector's angle, the speed of the car would have to greatly exceed that of the truck. In fact, the car would have to be travelling about 65 MPH, a speed that cannot be attained from a dead stop only a few feet into an intersection even by the best dragster. You can do the rest if you like, convert MPH to m/s, calculate the momentum of each drivers vector, Multiply the mass times the normal and the coefficient of friction to show that if the truck was going too fast and the car barely moving after just having stopped would have put them in a totally different position, but if you are an insurance investigator, being paid by an Insurance company for your time, you don't waste such time unless there was a fatality. The driver of the car is lucky to be alive and a liar.