- #1
nocloud
- 12
- 0
here's the situation
one ball with mass m1 and velocity v1 collides with second ball with mass m2 and 0 velocity. they stick together and the resulting blob has mass m1+m2 and velocity v3 which can be easily found using m1v1+0 = (m1+m2)v3 by conservation of momentum
lets assume we are on level surface and potential energy is zero.
conservation of energy tells us that
.5m1v1^2+0 = .5(m1+m2)v3^2
thus, we have
v1/v3 = (m1+m2)/m1
and
v1/v3 = Sqrt[(m1+m2)/m1]
which is a contradiction.
Can anybody tell me what I am forgetting to consider here?
one ball with mass m1 and velocity v1 collides with second ball with mass m2 and 0 velocity. they stick together and the resulting blob has mass m1+m2 and velocity v3 which can be easily found using m1v1+0 = (m1+m2)v3 by conservation of momentum
lets assume we are on level surface and potential energy is zero.
conservation of energy tells us that
.5m1v1^2+0 = .5(m1+m2)v3^2
thus, we have
v1/v3 = (m1+m2)/m1
and
v1/v3 = Sqrt[(m1+m2)/m1]
which is a contradiction.
Can anybody tell me what I am forgetting to consider here?