Question

Can someone walk me through how to solve this? Any help is much appreciated!

Two masses moving along a straight line undergo a front-to-back collision. The masses are m1= 60.0 kg, with initial velocity v1 = 17.0 m/s, and m2 = 26.0 kg, with initial velocity v2 = 7.0 m/s. After the collision, m2 moves at 18.1 m/s.

a) What is in kg m/s the momentum m2 after the collision?


b) What is in kg m/s the momentum m1 after the collision?

c) What is, in m/s, the magnitude of the velocity of m1 after the collision?

Answer 1

all you have to do is conserve momentum before and after the collision

m1*v1 + m2*v2 must be constant, so

60*17 + 26*26 = 60*v1 + 26*18.1

(a) 26*18.1
(c) solve for v1 above
(b) 60*v1