Question

A railroad car with a mass of 2.00 × 10⁴ kg moving at 3.00 m/s collides and joins with two railroad cars already joined together, each with the same mass as the single car and initially moving in the same direction at 1.20 m/ is the decrease in kinetic energy during the collision?

Answer 1

The question is about calculating the decrease in kinetic energy in a collision between train cars, using the principles of conservation of momentum and the kinetic energy formula.

Step-by-step explanation:

The subject of the question is related to the decrease in kinetic energy during a collision of railroad cars, which is a concept in physics dealing with conservation of momentum and energy.

To solve this, we first utilize the law of conservation of momentum to calculate the final velocity of the combined system post-collision and then use the kinetic energy formula to calculate the initial and final kinetic energies.

The decrease in kinetic energy is found by subtracting the final kinetic energy from the initial kinetic energy.