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formulajoe
Nov29-03, 11:48 AM
A car weighing 900 kg is waiting at a stop sign. A car weighing 1200 kg hits the oter car. The cars move .76 m after the collision. The coefficient of friction between the sliding tires and the pavement is .92. I need to find the speed of the car right before the collision.
I dont know what to use. Conservation of momentum doesnt work because I need at least one of the velocities.

arcnets
Nov30-03, 03:13 PM
formulajoe,
I think conservation of momentum is the right idea. I think you got to use it.
You got to find the final momentum. The idea is that the cars stick together after collision. So the final momentum is (m_1 + m_2)v_{final}. You got to find v_{final}.
You can do that. The cars are decelerated by a constant force of friction. This force is F = .92(m_1 + m_2)g. From F and d = .76m you can calculate v_{final}.