Eli5 If the equation for force is F=ma why does dropping the same object from 2 different heights change how much an object would be crushed?

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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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Anonymous 0 Comments

Acceleration due to gravity is the same, so the force of gravity is the same. But the force of gravity isn’t the relevant force here. What we want is the force of the bottle pushing down on the chip, and the equal and opposite force of the chip pushing up on the bottle.

In the case that the chip doesn’t break, the bottle quickly decelerates from whatever it’s speed was to 0.

In the case that the chip breaks, the top of the chip quickly accelerates from 0 to whatever the speed of the bottle is.

So the acceleration, and therefore the force, depends on the speed of the bottle at the moment of contact. This is where height and gravity become relevant. The greater the height, the faster the bottle during impact.

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