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?

Question

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?

In: 152

Answer 1

The force that changes is the force you need to slow down the faster moving object over the same short distance.

Same reason that a car will be more damaged by hitting a brick wall if it’s had a longer distance to accelerate first. The same brick wall is still stopping the same car, but it has to slow it down to zero from a higher impact speed.