Question

During a circus act, an elderly performer thrills the crowd by catching a cannon ball shot at him. The cannon ball has a mass of 29.0 kg and its horizontal component of velocity is 8.00 m/s when the 65.0 kg performer catches it. If the performer is on nearly frictionless roller skates, what is his recoil velocity in meters per second?

Answer 1

2.4681 m/s

Step-by-step explanation:

`m_1` = Mass of cannon ball = 29 kg

`m_2` = Mass of performer = 65 kg

`u_1` = Initial Velocity of cannon ball = 8 m/s

`u_2` = Initial Velocity of performer = 0 m/s

v = Velocity of combined mass

As the linear momentum of the system conserved

`m_1u_1 + m_2u_2 =(m_1 + m_2)v\\\Rightarrow v=(m_1u_1 + m_2u_2)/(m_1 + m_2)\\\Rightarrow v=(29* 8 + 65* 0)/(29 + 65)\\\Rightarrow v=2.4681\ m/s`

The recoil velocity is 2.4681 m/s