Question

An observer in the Earth reference frame observes cart A and cart B moving toward each other with the same speed until they collide and come to rest. Consider this event as seen by observer A moving along with cart A. Assume that this observer matches cart A's initial velocity but does not collide with cart B (that is, observer A continues along at the same velocity that cart A had initially). Would the observer in the Earth reference frame and observer A obtain the same value for the initial velocity of cart A? Yes No Would the observer in the Earth reference frame and observer A obtain the same value for the final velocity of cart B after the collision? No Yes Would the observer in the Earth reference frame and observer A obtain the same value for the relative velocity of the two carts after the collision?

Answer 1

Answer:

• No
• No
• Yes

Explanation:

• This is because of the reason that for the observer on the earth will observe the cart as moving whereas the velocity of the cart A for observer A will be zero.
• This is because for the observers in the different reference frames, the observation of velocity of the cart will also be different.
• This is because of the reason that the relative velocity is with respect to each other thus its value for both the observer will be same.