Question

Two ice skaters, each with a mass of 72.0 kg, are skating at 5.10 m/s when they collide and stick together. If the angle between their initial directions was 117°, determine the components of their combined velocity after the collision. (Let the initial motion of skater 1 be in the positive x direction and the initial motion of skater 2 be at an angle of 117° measured counterclockwise from the positive x-axis.)

Answer 1

Skater 1 is just 72*5.1 in x
Skater 2 is 72*5.1cos117 in x and 72*5.1sin117 in y

Sum x and y and using pythagorean & tan-1 find magnitude and direction of resultant