- #1
mikefitz
- 155
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These problems with x and y components always leave me confused...
A marksman standing on a motionless railroad car fires a gun into the air at an angle of 30° from the horizontal (the figure below ). The bullet has a speed of 173 m/s (relative to the ground) and a mass of 0.02 kg. The man and car move to the left at a speed of 1.2 " × 10-3 m/s after he shoots. What is the mass of the man and car? [Hint A component of a system's momentum along an axis is conserved if the net external force acting on the system has no component along that axis.]
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/1495/fig026vo8.gif
I know that momentum is conserved in the form of Pi = Pf. What I don't know is how to calculate the momentums when there are angles involved... Can someone help me get started on this problem please? Thanks
A marksman standing on a motionless railroad car fires a gun into the air at an angle of 30° from the horizontal (the figure below ). The bullet has a speed of 173 m/s (relative to the ground) and a mass of 0.02 kg. The man and car move to the left at a speed of 1.2 " × 10-3 m/s after he shoots. What is the mass of the man and car? [Hint A component of a system's momentum along an axis is conserved if the net external force acting on the system has no component along that axis.]
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/1495/fig026vo8.gif
I know that momentum is conserved in the form of Pi = Pf. What I don't know is how to calculate the momentums when there are angles involved... Can someone help me get started on this problem please? Thanks
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