Question

Two pool balls of equall mass have a perfectly elastic headon collision.The fist ball is traveling at 2m/s and the second at 3m/s in the opposite direction.what are thier speeds immediately after impact? I'm lost on what equation to use here. Does the faster velocity transfer to the slower ball?

Answer 1

In this situation, the balls exchange speeds and reverse direction. That keeps botht ehe kinetic energy and the linear momentum the same.
V1(final) = 3 m/s
V2(final) = 2 m/s

You set up the momentum and kinetic energy equations and solve them, and you would get this result. It only works for elastic collsions of equal masses.

Answer 2

Thanks