Question

The drawing shows a collision between two pucks on an air-hockey table. Puck A has a mass of 0.22 kg and is moving along the x axis with a velocity of 5.80 m/s. It makes a collision with puck B, which has a mass of 0.44 kg and is initially at rest. After the collision, the two pucks fly apart with angles as shown in the drawing (? = 66° and ? = 32°). Find the final speed of puck A.

Answer 1

SOLUTION

Based on the following figure:

Applying conservation of linear momentum we have:

or

Equation (2) can be written as:

But:

Therefore, equation (3) can be written as:

or

Separating components we have:

• For x-component:

replacing values:

or

Equation (8) can be written as:

Therefore:

• For the y-component:

replacing values:

or

But, equation (11) can be written as:

Therefore:

Now, grouping equations (8.2) and (11.2) we have:

Solving we obtain:

(SOLUTION)

and