Amosquito collides head-on with a car traveling 60 mph. part a is the force of the mosquito on the car larger than, smaller than, or equal to the force of the car on the mosquito? is the force of the mosquito on the car larger than, smaller than, or equal to the force of the car on the mosquito? the force of the mosquito on the car is equal to the force of the car on the mosquito. the force of the mosquito on the car is smaller than the force of the car on the mosquito. the force of the mosquito on the car is larger than the force of the car on the mosquito. request answer provide feedback

The force exerted by the mosquito on the car is equal to the force of the car on the mosquito

Explanation:

Newton's third Law states that:

When an object A exerts a force on another object B, then object B exerts an equal and opposite force on object A.

If we apply this law to the situation described in the problem, we have that:

The car (object A) exerts a force on the mosquito (object B), so the mosquito exerts an equal and opposite force on the car.

The reason why the car does not experience any effect due to the force exerted by the mosquito is the larger mass of the car. In fact, the acceleration experienced by an object is given by Newton's second law:

while F is the force exerted on the object and m is its mass. In this problem, both the car and the mosquito experience the same force F, however the car's mass is much larger than the mosquito's mass, therefore the car experiences a negligible acceleration compared to the mosquito.

more than, less

less than, more