- #1
jenavira
- 10
- 0
Collision problem
After a completely inelastic collision, two objects of the same mass and same initial speed are found to move away together at half their initial speed. Find the angle between the initial velocities of the objects.
I've got the equations
(2mv)cos theta1 = 2m.5v cos theta2
&
mv sin theta1 = 2m.5v sin theta2
But I'm not sure where to go from there. (Actually, I'm not sure how to get a numerical answer out of something I haven't been given any numbers to put into, so there's probably a conceptual thing I'm missing here...)
After a completely inelastic collision, two objects of the same mass and same initial speed are found to move away together at half their initial speed. Find the angle between the initial velocities of the objects.
I've got the equations
(2mv)cos theta1 = 2m.5v cos theta2
&
mv sin theta1 = 2m.5v sin theta2
But I'm not sure where to go from there. (Actually, I'm not sure how to get a numerical answer out of something I haven't been given any numbers to put into, so there's probably a conceptual thing I'm missing here...)
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