Question

A 0.20-kg softball is traveling at a velocity of 20 m/s to the east relative to Earth. It collides head-on with a 0.40-kg rubber ball traveling at a velocity of 10 m/s to the west. The system's kinetic energy, as measured from the Earth reference frame, decreases by 19 % because of the collision. Call the east the +x direction.

a) What is the x-component of the final velocity of the softball?

b) What is the x-component of the final velocity of the rubber ball?

c) What change in internal energy has occurred?

d) An observer watches this collision from a reference frame moving at a velocity of

15 m/s to the east relative to the Earth reference frame. What change in kinetic energy does this observer measure?

e) An observer watches this collision from a reference frame moving at a velocity of

15 m/s to the east relative to the Earth reference frame. What change in internal energy does this observer measure?

f) What change in kinetic energy would be measured by an observer in a reference frame traveling at

20 m/s east relative to the Earth reference frame?

g) What change in internal energy would be measured by an observer in a reference frame traveling at

20 m/s east relative to the Earth reference frame?

Answer 1