A 5.00 kg ball (ball 1), moving to the right at a velocity of +4.00 m/s on a frictionless table, collides head-on with a stationary 7.60 kg ball (ball 2). Find the final velocities of the balls if the collision is as specified below.
(a) elastic collision
ball 1 = -.825
ball 2 = 3.17
(b) completely inelastic collision
ball 1
ball 2i solved part A but cant figure out how to get part B started any ideas please help thanks.
There may be a trick on the wording on part be. It is not universally accepted in wording, but some teachers who don't know better use "completely inelastic collision" to mean the balls are stuck togther, and have the same velocity. If you make that assumption, you can get a velocity,otherwise, it is not solvable.
i understand but how to i go about solving this that's what i need help in, if that assumption is made.
since they are inelastic, they would stick together.
Final velocities
v1 = v2
momentum is still conserved.
To solve part B, we need to calculate the final velocities of the balls in a completely inelastic collision.
In a completely inelastic collision, the two objects stick together after colliding and move with a common final velocity. To calculate the final velocity of the combined mass, we'll use the principle of conservation of momentum.
Conservation of momentum states that the total momentum before the collision is equal to the total momentum after the collision, assuming no external forces are acting on the system.
The momentum of an object is given by the product of its mass and velocity. Therefore, we can write the equation for conservation of momentum as:
(mass of ball 1 * initial velocity of ball 1) + (mass of ball 2 * initial velocity of ball 2) = (mass of combined balls * final velocity)
Let's plug in the values:
(5.00 kg * 4.00 m/s) + (7.60 kg * 0 m/s) = (mass of combined balls * final velocity)
(20.00 kg·m/s) = (12.60 kg * final velocity)
Now, let's solve for the final velocity of the combined balls:
final velocity = (20.00 kg·m/s) / (12.60 kg) = 1.59 m/s
Since the two objects stick together and move with a common velocity, both ball 1 and ball 2 will have the same final velocity.
Therefore, the final velocity of ball 1 and ball 2 in the completely inelastic collision is 1.59 m/s.