Question

A glass vessel does not break when it falls on a hard floor, but it breaks when it falls on a carpet.
State true or false

Answer 1

Hint:Think about the force exerted by the glass when it hits the floor and the carpet. When the force exerted by the glass to the surface will be more, the glass will break. The surface capable of absorbing the force exerted by the glass will not break the glass while the surface which is not capable of absorbing the force exerted by the glass will lead to breaking the glass vessel.

Complete step-by-step solution:It is observed in everyday life that as soon as some glass vessel falls on some hard surface such as floor, road, on bricks, etc. it breaks immediately whereas when it is dropped on some soft surfaces such as sofa, mattresses, etc. the glass vessel does not break.
This is because when the glass vessel falls on the hard surface it instantaneously comes to rest. The glass vessel exerts a large amount of force on the floor. The floor being hard is not able to absorb the force and thus, it reflects back the force to the vessel. Due to this, the vessel breaks instantaneously.
But when the vessel hits the carpet, the energy is absorbed and dispersed into the carpet. However, if the vase drops to the concrete floor, all the energy is concentrated on the point of impact with dispersion causing the force to react and go back into the vase causing a break factor greater than the vase can withstand.

Thus, the given statement is false.

Note:Read the statement carefully and do not get confused between the two parts of the statements. Always read the question again and again when words such as not are included in the question statement. Remember that hard surfaces reflect the energy back while soft surfaces are capable to absorb the energy to a larger extent.