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geauxKTM
- 6
- 0
Elastic collision, I think?
rock.freak667 said:Use conservation of energy. What is the total energy at the top? What is the work done by friction? When you get these two, you can get the kinetic energy at the bottom.
An elastic collision is a type of collision in which kinetic energy is conserved. This means that the total amount of kinetic energy before the collision is equal to the total amount of kinetic energy after the collision.
In an inelastic collision, kinetic energy is not conserved and is lost in the form of heat, sound, or deformation. In an elastic collision, however, kinetic energy is fully conserved.
One example of an elastic collision is when two billiard balls collide. As long as there is no friction, the total kinetic energy of the two balls before and after the collision will be the same.
The equation for calculating the final velocities in an elastic collision is: v1f = (m1-m2)/(m1+m2) * v1i + (2*m2)/(m1+m2) * v2i and v2f = (2*m1)/(m1+m2) * v1i + (m2-m1)/(m1+m2) * v2i, where v1f and v2f are the final velocities of the two objects, m1 and m2 are the masses of the two objects, and v1i and v2i are the initial velocities of the two objects.
Elastic collisions are important in physics because they demonstrate the conservation of energy and momentum. They also allow us to understand and predict the behavior of objects in motion, which is essential in many fields of science and engineering.