What would happen when two cars going 50 mph crash into each other?

“Although the two-car crash doubles the speed, the energy the crash is transferred to twice the mass resulting in a crash that looks like just one car hitting a wall at 50 mph.” It doesn’t really add any useful explanation other than to point out that the kinetic energy is dependent on the square of the velocity.

How would a car hitting a wall at 50 mph compare to two cars hitting head-on at 50mph?

If two identical cars each going 50 mph collide perfectly head-on, the collisions would be slightly worse than if one of the cars going 50 mph hits a brick wall. Very slightly worse. The reason is that even a brick wall gives some during such a collision.

What happens when the two cars collide with equal force?

In a collision between two objects, both objects experience forces that are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. Such forces often cause one object to speed up (gain momentum) and the other object to slow down (lose momentum).

Does doubling the speed double the damage?

By experiment, a car moving twice as fast does not inflict twice the damage. It inflicts 4x the damage. But that is just restating your question.

What happens when two cars of the same mass collide?

Completly inelastic collisions are those which end by the objects sticking together and they lose the most kinetic energy. Both carts come towards each other in a head-on collision. If both carts have the same masses and speeds then they will both come to rest after they hit the Velcro pads.

How do you calculate combined speed?

Divide the total momentum by the sum of the masses if the two objects stick together after impact. This will give you the resultant velocity of the two objects. In the example above, we would take 50 and divide by the sum of the masses, which is 10, getting a result of 5 meters per second.

Does doubling the speed of a car collision double the impact force?

So doubling the speed will quadruple the force.