Linear Momentum: How to find final velocity of elastic and inelastic collisions?
Linear Momentum: How to find final velocity of elastic and inelastic collisions? A 3kg object moves to the right with a speed of 5m/s. It collides with a 5kg object moving 3m/s to the left. Find the final speed of the 3kg object if the collision is: I have a computer program called Interactive Physics. I drew a simulation of this problem, and measured the velocity of each object after collision. Inelastic collision, v3 = – 5 m/s, v5 = +3 m/s Elastic collision v3 and v5 = 0 This my way of checking my answers from the work below!! Momentum = mass * velocity Let’s say motion to the right is positive!! Initial momentum = 3 kg * 5 m/s + 5 kg * -3 m/s (the 3 m/s is negative because the 5 kg object is moving to the left. Initial momentum = 15 -15 = 0 So final momentum must = 0 If the collision is elastic, kinetic energy is conserved, which means after the collision, the 3 kg mass will be traveling to the left and the 5 kg object will be traveling to the right. (each object reversed direction
