Question

A train car With a mass of 1650kg is moving east at 2m/s. It collides with an identical train car, Which is stationary. What will the result velocity of the combinad train cars be if the colisión is perfectly ineslastic

Answer 1

the combined train cars will be moving east at a speed of 1 m/s after the perfectly inelastic collision.

Step-by-step explanation:

First, we can calculate the initial momentum of the first train car before the collision:

p1 = m1v1 = 1650 kg * 2 m/s = 3300 kgm/s east

Since the second train car is stationary, its initial momentum is zero:

p2 = m2*v2 = 0

The total momentum before the collision is therefore:

p_total = p1 + p2 = 3300 kg*m/s east

After the collision, the two train cars stick together and move as one, so we can treat them as a single object with a combined mass of 2*m1 = 3300 kg. Let's call the final velocity of the combined train cars v_final.

The conservation of momentum tells us that the total momentum after the collision is also p_total, so we can write:

p_total = m_total * v_final

Substituting in the values we have:

3300 kg*m/s east = 3300 kg * v_final

Solving for v_final, we get:

v_final = 1 m/s east

So the combined train cars will be moving east at a speed of 1 m/s after the perfectly inelastic collision.