A 0.028 kg rifle bullet traveling 210 m/s buries itself in a 3.1 kg pendulum hanging on a 2.5 m long string, which makes the pendulum swing upward in an arc.

Question

1. Determine the vertical and horizontal components of the pendulum's displacement.

Answer 1

Use conservation of momentum to find the initial velocity of the block/bullet.

Now using that velocity, find its intial KE. If you set that KE = mgh, h is the max vertical height.

Now draw the figure, find out at h what the angle the pendulum is, and from that, the horizontal movement.