Elastic and inelastic collisions
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Intros
Examples
Lessons
- Solving word problems with momentum and elastic/inelastic collisions
- Two cars collide head-on and stick together. The cars are stationary after colliding.
- Is total momentum conserved?
- Is total energy conserved?
- Is the collision elastic or inelastic?
- Identify each situation as an inelastic or elastic collision.
- One car crashes into another, bouncing apart with a loud bang.
- A hammer strikes a piece of steel, bouncing off and producing sparks.
- A He atom collides with a H atom, bouncing off and maintaining overall kinetic energy.
- Two cars collide head-on and stick together. The cars are stationary after colliding.
- Conservation of energy and momentum in elastic and inelastic collisions
- 3.6×104 kg train car A travelling at 5.40 m/s [E] collides with stationary 5.20×104 kg train car B. The train cars bounce apart, and after the collision, train car A travels at 1.70 m/s [E]. Determine if this collision is elastic or inelastic.
- 0.50 kg steel ball A travelling [E] with a kinetic energy of 0.49 J collides with stationary 0.75 kg steel ball B head-on. After the collision, ball A travels at 0.28 m/s [W]. Assuming the collision is elastic, find the velocity of ball B after the collision.
- A "ballistic pendulum" is a method used to measure the velocity of a bullet. A 5.60 g bullet is fired at a 1.24 kg wooden block suspended as shown in the diagram, and the block rises to 0.250 m higher than its initial position at the peak of its swing.
- Find the velocity of the bullet when it hits the block.
- Calculate how much of the kinetic energy is lost in this inelastic collision. Explain what happens to this energy.