A 0.490 kg hockey puck, moving east with a speed of 5.80 m/s, has a head-on collision with a 0.870 kg puck initially at rest. Assume a perfectly elastic collision. (Let east be the +x direction.)

Question

A 0.490 kg hockey puck, moving east with a speed of 5.80 m/s, has a head-on collision with a 0.870 kg puck initially at rest. Assume a perfectly elastic collision. (Let east be the +x direction.)
(a) What will be the speed of each object after the collision?
0.490 kg puck

0.870 kg puck

(b) What will be the direction of each puck after the collision?

drwls · Answer

A derivation of the equation for this situation can be found at http://www.real-world-physics-problems.com/elastic-collision.html