Question

What happened to the ball when a moving car hit it?

Answer 1

In this given question we have to check what happens to the ball when a moving car hits it. So, here we will use Newton’s first law of motion and also the law of conservation of momentum so that we can find out what happens to the ball when hit by a car.

Complete step-by-step solution:
To solve the question first we will discuss what is Newton’s first law of motion-
Newton’s first law is also called Galileo's law of inertia. This law states that if a body is at rest or is moving at a uniform speed in a straight line, it will remain at rest or keep moving in a straight line at uniform speed unless any external force is acted upon it. This postulate is commonly known as the law of inertia.
Here we have the ball which is in rest position and the external force acting is the car so, by the law of inertia the ball will start moving.
Also, we will use the law of conservation of momentum so let us discuss that now,
When we talk about conservation in physics it means something that does not change. So, we can conclude with this tha we are talking about no change in momentum of bodies.
It states that if any two or more bodies are in an isolated system and are acting upon each other, then their total momentum will remain constant unless any external force is applied on it. Therefore, we can say that the momentum can neither be created nor destroyed; it can only be transformed from one form to another.
Here in this situation given to us, the momentum of a moving is transformed to the ball making the ball to move.
Hence, we can say that the ball will also start moving if a moving car hits the ball by using law of inertia and law of conservation of momentum.

Note: It also tells us that the principle of conservation of momentum directly leads to the third law of motion which says that every has an equal and opposite reaction. That’s why the action of the car led to an equal opposite reaction to the ball and thus making the ball move.