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Unreasonable Results

Avg difficulty 2.5

A car feels a small force due to the light it sends out from its headlights, equal to the momentum of the light divided by the time in which it is emitted. (a) Calculate the power of each headlight, if they exert a total force of 2.00×10−2 N2 . \text{00} \times \text{10}^{- 2} \text{ N} backward on the car. (b) What is unreasonable about this result? (c) Which assumptions are unreasonable or inconsistent?

OpenStax College Physics 2e, 29.4 Photon Momentum, exercise 18

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Adapted from College Physics © 2022 Rice University. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Sources: College Physics 2e, College Physics for AP® Courses 2e. Imported at revision f98d7a7.