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Classical Mechanics Level 2

No more time to relax! I run to the bus station. Luckily, two buses are stopping by, because there are too many passengers waiting to get to their workplaces. But for some reasons, one of the buses is crowded with people, the other... not so much.

I have to study on the bus. There're no other choices to choose. - My thoughts are fluttering while people are running past me.

So, which bus should I choose?

(In other words, which bus will be better for me to study?)

Details and Assumptions:

Don't worry! People in the city are too busy with their stressful lives that no one talks to each other.
I get the same seat in both the buses.
The crowded bus remains crowded for the complete ride.

The bus with more people in it. You can go either bus, you still study as much. The bus with less people in it. Cannot be determined.

1 solution

Thành Đạt Lê
Oct 29, 2017

When you go on the bus with more people in it, the weight of the bus with the people inside it will be larger, that means:

The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and... I mean, the wheel of the bus will be more distorted.

The area between the wheels and the road is larger.

The friction of the wheels is larger.

The bus will go slower.

and...

The inertia of the bus is larger.

The velocity of the bus doesn't change as much.

(The bus will take more time to continue going whenever it meets an obstacle.)

But there's no guarantee that the bus that is currently more crowded will stay more crowded. It's possible that everyone is rushing to the empty one, making that one become the more crowded bus. Or it's possible that everyone already on the crowded bus is more likely to get off sooner, making it less crowded for the majority of the ride. It's also unclear if there are seats left in the crowded bus or if you'll have to stand, making studying impossible. There is not nearly enough information to come to a conclusion.

Moreover, from experience, I find it much easier to concentrate when there are fewer people around, even without noise, and when it comes to hitting potholes, the extra weight may make shock absorbers less effective.

The problem could be interesting, but the story introduces too many variables and obscures the intended purpose of the question.

Gregory Lewis - 3 years, 7 months ago

The answer is based the opinion of almost everyone in my class, my reasoning and the condition of buses in my country (which is pretty bad, to be honest).

Thành Đạt Lê - 3 years, 7 months ago

Even if you feel it's easier to study on a crowded bus than on a less crowded (but by no means empty) bus, and you may well be correct on that (I take the subway and prefer it empty,) I didn't even consider the question of which one is easier to study on - my only thought was which one will be more crowded, and there's not even enough information to answer that question.

Introducing the idea of people boarding the bus, and of some people already being on the bus, made the dynamics of people boarding and departing the bus part of the problem, and there's not enough information about those dynamics to answer the question.

Gregory Lewis - 3 years, 7 months ago

@Gregory Lewis – So what will the question have to be? I'm still unsure about that.

Thành Đạt Lê - 3 years, 7 months ago

Well this is some bullshit

Safir Saso - 3 years, 7 months ago

You should have given more info. Writing simply like this will never tell the objective of the question.

Prabhat Rao - 3 years, 1 month ago

Nice question but...you know what I mean!

Kumudesh Ghosh - 1 year, 1 month ago

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