Energy Sharing in Elastic Collisions

[fire526438]

A stationary object with mass mb is struck head-on by an object with mass ma that is moving initially at speed v0.
If the collision is elastic, what percentage of the original energy does each object have after the collision?

I don't know how to find percentage.

 

[grzz]

Is the collision assumed to be perfectly elastic? i.e. is the total kinetic energy assumed to be conserved?

 

[fire526438]

kinetic energy conserved

 

[grzz]

There are two principles you can use. Do you know which principles?

 

[fire526438]

kinetic energy & momentum
but how to calculate

 

[grzz]

Correct.
First I would simplify the notation.
Why not call the stationary mass M and the other mass m.
Let m have intial velocity u and let final velocities of m be v and that of M be w.
Now apply those two principles.

 

[grzz]

conservation of KE: (1/2)mu^{2} = ...
conservation of linear momentum: mu =...