Surprising result of calculating speeds of two cars hitting a tree

What you (and others) seem to be missing is that the 100mph car will impact the tree before the 70mph car comes to a stop. How much will the impact displace the tree? Then recalculate the 70 mph solution, use that value to re-estimate the 100mph tree impact displacement and iterate a few more times until the solution converges sufficiently.

3 Likes