Answer:
<em>The 150 lb woman at 30 mph would experience the greatest force of impact in a sudden collision.</em>
Explanation:
<u>Momentum </u>
The force of impact exerted on an moving object that suddenly stops or changes its movement is measures by the physics magnitude called Impulse, which can be computed with the formula
Where F is the force and t is the time that force acts to produce the impact on the object. The impulse is also defined as the change in the momentum of the object:
Or equivalently
The question describes four situations where different persons and object suffer impact that make them stop from their moving state. Thus and the impulse is
We are only interested in the relative magnitudes of each case, so we won't consider the sign in the calculations
Case 1: A 200 lb. man traveling 20 mph
Case 2: A 150 lb. woman at 30 mph
Case 3: A 35 lb. infant at 75 mph
Case 4: A 75 lb. child at 55 mph
By comparing the results, we can see that the 150 lb woman at 30 mph would experience the greatest force of impact in a sudden collision.