Damage in collisions

The fully loaded milk tanker has badly damaged three houses: central North Island of NZ, 23/12/2006.

Many people would say that the image is an example of momentum, the product mv belonging to the speeding massive tanker. The tanker has momentum, but the incidental damage occurs as kinetic energy, is converted to heat. Damage in a collision is very roughly proportional to initial KE, not to initial momentum.

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