Momentum and angular momentum (which you may not have studied) are conserved in all collision. Kinetic energy is only conserved in special cases (like billiards) but is often approximately conserved. Total energy is conserved, but some may end up as internal inergy (heat; light; vibration etc.) It does not matter how many dimensions are involved in the problem; momentum is still conserved.
It seems like a pretty silly question for your teacher to assign. An example of a one-d collision would be a basketball dribbled from above, or a head-on collision where both objects stick together or remain on the same linear path.
State the quantities that are conserved in one-d and two-d collisions. Give an example of each type of collision.
I looked in my textbook and all i could come up with was that momentum was conserved for both?
1 answer