What are the Initial Velocities of Two Cars Colliding at Different Directions?

poohead
Messages
34
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement


two cars collide with each other and basically go different directions
m1 starts out going West and m2 starts out going North

I have set sign conventions to have North + and West -
East + and south -

v1 and v2 are unknown but v1' and v2' are know v1'=19.4 m/s (57 N of W)
v2'=11.4 m/s (44 N of W)

masses are m1= 765 kg and m2=1100 kg i know that Pi=Pf
equation for momentum
m1v1+m2v2=m1v1'+m2v2'

cos law, sine law and tan law may be required due to angles

i must figure out v1 and v2, the initial velocities for the cars
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Welcome to PF!

Hi poohead! Welcome to PF! :smile:

Show us what you've tried, and where you're stuck, and then we'll know how to help. :wink:
 
this is basically where I am stuck, i don't know where to go from here. I drew a diagram labelling the angles and drew triangles so i could use SOH CAH TOA but i don't believe I am getting the right answers cause it seems to be way out of proportion
 
Can you figure out what the x- and y-components are?
 
yea man i did that and figured it out
thank you
 
To solve this, I first used the units to work out that a= m* a/m, i.e. t=z/λ. This would allow you to determine the time duration within an interval section by section and then add this to the previous ones to obtain the age of the respective layer. However, this would require a constant thickness per year for each interval. However, since this is most likely not the case, my next consideration was that the age must be the integral of a 1/λ(z) function, which I cannot model.
Back
Top