Deducing motion from a coin toss
Classical Mechanics
Level
3
While travelling in a bus, I tossed up a coin. To my surprise, it did not land on my hand, but landed on the seat in front of me.
Which of the following have to be true about the motion of the bus during the coin toss?
The speed of the bus was decreasing.
The bus was moving forward.
None of these choices
The speed of the bus was increasing
The bus was moving in reverse.
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1 solution
Since the coin falls away from the boy we can be sure a pseudo force is to be included here and that the bus is accelerating. The reason we can't decide between option B and D is simply because we don't know in which direction the boy is facing while he is standing. A cheap trick to solve such poorly set single correct questions is to use common sense. If one of B or D are correct then one of A or E have to be correct too. So the answer is indeed C.