Collision of two rolling bodies

AI Thread Summary
A solid sphere rolling without slipping collides elastically with an identical stationary sphere, raising questions about the post-collision velocities. The discussion emphasizes the conservation of angular momentum about the point of contact during the collision, while neglecting ground friction due to the brief nature of the impact. It is noted that the impulse between the colliding spheres is significant, despite other forces being negligible. Participants confirm that the second sphere will acquire the linear velocity of the first sphere post-collision, though the relevance of this point is questioned. The focus remains on accurately applying the conservation laws to solve for the first sphere's linear velocity after it resumes pure rolling.
Arka420
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Homework Statement


A solid sphere is rolling without slipping on rough ground with an angular velocity w and linear velocity v. It collides elastically with an another identical sphere at rest. Radius of each sphere is R and mass m. What is the linear velocity of the first sphere after it starts pure rolling again?

Homework Equations


The equations for the conservation of angular momentum.

The Attempt at a Solution


The basic idea is conserving angular momentum about the point of contact. Once that is done,the problem will be solved easily. Framing the equation for the conservation of momentum appears to be a problem (for me).
 
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You have to assume no friction between the balls.
The first thing to do is analyse the collision ignoring the ground. This is ok because the collision is considered to be very brief, so any strictly limited force (gravity, normal force from ground, friction from ground) has negligible impulse during the collision. The impulse between the colliding balls is non-negligible, regardless of the brevity.
 
haruspex said:
You have to assume no friction between the balls.
The first thing to do is analyse the collision ignoring the ground. This is ok because the collision is considered to be very brief, so any strictly limited force (gravity, normal force from ground, friction from ground) has negligible impulse during the collision. The impulse between the colliding balls is non-negligible, regardless of the brevity.
Pretty much OK. And is it OK to say,that after collision,second sphere acquires linear velocity v?
 
Arka420 said:
Pretty much OK. And is it OK to say,that after collision,second sphere acquires linear velocity v?
Yes, but is that relevant?
 
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