Engineering
Physics
Collision
Momentum and Energy Conservation for System of Particles
Summation of Vectors
Question

After a completely inelastic collision two objects of the same mass and same initial speed are found to move away together at half their initial speed. Find the angle between the initial velocities of the objects.

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Solution
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In a completely inelastic collision, two objects stick together after colliding. Momentum is conserved, but kinetic energy is not. Let the mass of each object be m and initial speed be v. The final speed is v2. Let the angle between their initial velocities be θ.

Conserving momentum in the x and y directions and combining gives: (2m·v2)2=(mv)2+(mv)2+2(mv)(mv)cosθ. Simplifying, v2=2v2+2v2cosθ, leading to cosθ=-12.

Final Answer: 120°