Asked by Meagan
In 1896 in Waco, Texas, William Crush of the “ Katy” railroad parked two locomotives at opposite ends of a 6.4 km track, fired them up, tied their throttles open, and then allowed them to crash head-on at full speed in front of 30,000 spectators. Hundreds were hurt by flying debris; several were killed. Assuming the weight of each locomotive was 1.2 x 10^6 N and its acceleration prior to the collision was a constant 0.26 m/s^2, what was the total
kinetic energy of the two locomotives just before the collision?
kinetic energy of the two locomotives just before the collision?