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Newton's Cradle same diameter, different mass
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[QUOTE="andrewkirk, post: 6607225, member: 265790"] As long as all balls in a cradle have the same mass (which they do here), and as long as they're dense enough to allow us to ignore air resistance (this too is OK here), the mass doesn't matter. Why? Because both KE and momentum/impulse are proportional to the ball mass M, so for any equation involving M we can remove M by either cancelling (when it appears in the numerator and denominator of a fraction) or dividing the whole equation by M. Looked at another way: the metal ball scenario does affect the 5th ball more: it imparts approximately three times (66/21) the impulse to that ball compared to what is imparted to the fifth ball in the marble-ball cradle. But it needs three times the impulse to make the ball reach the same height, because the ball is three times as heavy. [/QUOTE]
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Newton's Cradle same diameter, different mass
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