Is the impact stronger if they both collide into each other, or if one crashes into the stationery other?

Question

or is it *stationary

Answer 1

Elementary

Answer 2

If 2 bodies collide they will impact with greater force if they are both moving towards each other. If a car is heading along a road at 30 miles per hour and hits a stationary vehicle there will be a 30 mile per hour impact. If it hits a car travelling in the opposite direction also doing 30 miles per hour then there will be a 60 mile per hour collision resulting in a greater impact and greater destruction.

If, on the other hand, the 30 MPH car crashes into a car travelling in the SAME direction at 10 MPH then there will only be a 20 MPH collision and less damage.

Answer 3

My logic would be that anything moving at any velocity, carries energy, therefore would be `heavier`. A moving car carrying energy slamming into something stationary would do less damage than if both where moving at each other. Notice that moving vehicles running into stationary ones, eg trains running into cars on level crossings, carry the car forward, the car is not travelling into the train therefore does not have to stop and then change direction, that combined energy would have to go somewhere. Look at it this way, the car hitting a stationay train would make a mess, now add the moving train.]

Answer 4

The impact of two objects which are moving will be greater than one moving object colliding into a staionery object 'all things being equal'.
Simple eg.
2 cars moving at 30mph travelling towards each other collision is effectively 60mph. Greater than if one of them is stationery and the other collides at 30mph.

Obviously if the moving object is travelling at 60 mph.....

Answer 5

The strength of the impact depends on the combined speeds of the two.

If one is moving at 30 mph and the other stationary, the impact will be half as strong as if they were both moving towards each other at 30 mph.

If one is moving at 60 mph and the other stationary, the impact will be the same strength as if they were both moving at 30 mph.

Answer 6

I would say it depends on the speed of each individual impact. ie: if 2 cars are travelling 50Mph and collide head on, the impact strength we equate to 100Mph. If 1 car was stationary and the other was still travelling at 50Mph, then the impact would equate to 50Mph, however on the other hand, if the same car was still at a stand still and the other car was going 100Mph, the impact strength would be the same as the first scenario.

Answer 7

If two objects just stand still, there is no impact.
*If one of them hits the other stationary one, at 50mph, the force of the impact is only half what it would be if each was travelling toward each other at 50mph (100mph). If they collide while both are moving in the same direction, but one at 50mph and the other at 100mph, the impact will be the same as in the second scenario*.
http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2005/5/15a/article_01.htm

Answer 8

It depends on the speed each is moving. A moving object colliding with a staionary object at 60mph generates the same impact as two objects both moving at 30mph colliding.

Answer 9

The impact will be greater if both vehicles are moving, because the speeds are added together to give a total crash speed.

Answer 10

the impact is governed by the amount of motion in both objects, doesn't matter if one is stationary or not.