Question

A 10kg toy truck moved at 5m/s east. It collided head on with a 5kg toy car moving 10m/s moving west. What is the total momentum of the system.

Answer 1

Given a 10 kg toy truck moved at 5 m/s east.

`\begin{gathered} p_1=(10kg)*(5\text{ m/s)} \\ p_1=(50kg.m)/(s) \end{gathered}`

It collided head-on with a 5kg toy car moving 10m/s moving west.

`\begin{gathered} p_2=(5kg)*(-10\text{ m/s)} \\ p_2=-(50kg.m)/(s) \end{gathered}`

Setting the eastward direction as positive and the westward direction as negative, you can easily calculate the total momentum of the system.

Adding the +50 kg.m/s with -50 kg.m/s gives a sum of zero.

`(50kg.m)/(s)-(50kg.m)/(s)=0`

Thus, the total momentum of the system is zero.