Yosma_1 said:
I asked my physics teacher and she said that we would have to use 2D collisions but am still not sure how to solve this.
By 2D collisions your teacher meant that it's not enought to write the conservation of momentum equation like you did, but you'll have to treat the momenta of Mr Diesel and Ms Rodriguez as vectors.
Here's a bit more about it:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/col2d.html#c1
Don't forget to have a look at the "calculation" link - it let's you just plug the numbers to an example collision and calculate the outcome.
The collision in this case will be different than in the example on that page, as both masses end up flying together after colliding.
Here's a quick tutorial on vectors, inlcudding addition:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vect.html#veccon
You'll need to brush up on that to solve the problem.
Treat the collision as perfectly ellastic(i.e., conservation laws hold without any dissipation), and neglect air resistance.
Start by drawing the mid-air collision using vectors as seen from top-down. Masses are easy to find on the net. The collision angle looks like 90 degrees to me. You'll get a relationship between the three velocities involved - that of Vin, Michelle and both together.
The velocity of Michelle can be approximated as the velocity of cars/the tank on the highway.
How high the velocity of the two together must be can be found out by solving a projectile motion equation. Assume the collision is at the top of the trajectories of each person separately, so that the resultant velocity can be treated as parallel to the horizontal.
You'll also have to use some numbers for the width of the gap they need to clear, and for the width of the road - so that you can be sure they don't fall off on the other side.
Finally, pluggin in results from the above will net you Vin's velocity before the collision. You can either use this as "the" velocity to show how fast his car would need to been going, or for extra presicion solve another projectile motion equation to find his V
0 during launch. I suspect it'll be way higher than what his car could coceivably achieve, but we won't know for sure unless the calculations are done.