In: Physics
A car travelling at 3.0 m/s drives into an empty parking space.
At the same instant, a truck that has an inertia 50% greater than
the car’s is using the same parking space to take a shortcut
through the parking lot. Both vehicles are coasting (zero
acceleration conveniently), and just before they hit head-on, the
truck is moving at 4.0 m/s. During the collision 75% of the initial
KE of the car-truck system is converted to internal energy. There
are on unbalanced external forces.
1. Explain why the direction of the truck is a better choice for
the postive x-direction.
2. Right at the end of your solution, you will solve a quadratic
equation. The quadratic equation will have two distinct solutions,
but only one will make physical sense. Explain your choice. Hint:
be sure to find the velocities of the truck and car before making a
decision.
3. Give the final velocities of the two vehicles.