Question

Read the scenario and choose the correct answers.

Imagine you have just witnessed a small avalanche on a mountain while skiing, and two slushy snowballs just crashed together in a perfectly inelastic collision. They are moving as one larger snowball, as a combined mass.

Before the collision, snowball A was 7 kg and had initial momentum of –14 kg · m/s; therefore, its velocity must have been
m/s.

Snowball B had initial momentum of 15 kg ∙ m/s, and a velocity of 5 m/s; therefore, its mass must have been
kg.

Recognizing that momentum is conserved in inelastic collisions, the total momentum of the combined snowballs after the collision must be
kg · m/s.

Answer 1

-2 m/s

3 kg

1 kg · m/s