Answer:
They collide, couple together, and roll away in the direction that <u>the 2m/s car was rolling in.</u>
Explanation:
We should start off with stating that the conservation of momentum is used here.
Momentum = mass * speed
Since, mass of both freight cars is the same, the speed determines which has more momentum.
Thus, the momentum of the 2 m/s freight car is twice that of the 1 m/s freight car.
The final speed is calculated as below:
mass * (velocity of first freight car) + mass * (velocity of second freight car) = (mass of both freight cars) * final velocity
(m * V1) + (m * V2) = (2m * V)
Let's substitute the velocities 1m/s for the first car, and - 2m/s for the second. (since the second is opposite in direction)
We get:
solving this we get:
V = - 0.5 m/s
Thus we can see that both cars will roll away in the direction that the 2 m/s car was going in. (because of the negative sign in the answer)