Question

Describe elastic, inelastic, and completely inelastic collisions. Which type of collisions are you going to investigate in the lab?

Do you expect the linear momentum of the system to be conserved in your experiment?In which part? Explain why.

Do you expect kinetic energy of the system to be conserved in your experiment? In which part? Explain why.

In one trial for inelastic collisions in the experiment, cart 1 has mass m1 and is initially moving with velocity v ⃗_1i to the right. Cart 2 with mass m2 is initially moving with velocity v ⃗_2i also to the right. The velocity of the cart 1 is larger than the velocity of cart 2 causing a collision between both carts. After the collision, the carts stick together and move with velocity v ⃗_f to the right.

Write down the expression for the magnitude of linear momentum of the system before collision.

Write down the expression for the magnitude of linear momentum of the system after the collision.

Write down the expression for the magnitude of kinetic energy of the system before collision.

Write down the expression for the magnitude of the kinetic energy of the system after the collision.

Answer 1