In science one year, we did a test of dropping a water bottle from different heights over a Pringle, and we had to protect the Pringle with a paper. But how would increasing the height increase the force is the mass and acceleration is the same?
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What causes damage in a collision is impulse(I) and impulse is the change in momentum/time.
Momentum is the mass of the object times the speed at which it is moving.
The longer something falls the more time in the air the force of gravity has to accelerate it. So if it falls for 1 second it’ll be going a certain speed, but if it falls for 2 seconds it’ll be going a lot faster. (Ignoring terminal velocity). Therefore if the object that’s been falling longer has more speed and therefore more momentum and will undergo more impulse (have a harder collision) when it hits the ground.
If it lands on a soft squishy material, it’ll take a lot longer to come to a complete stop and have even less impulse and be more likely to survive the fall. That’s why helmets and bubble wrap work.
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