Question

During a circus act, a performer thrills the crowd by catching a cannon ball shot at him. The cannon ball has a mass of m1 = 8.5 kg and the horizontal component of its velocity is v = 8.1 m/s when the performer, of mass m2 = 66 kg, catches it. If the performer is on nearly frictionless roller skates, what is his recoil velocity?

Answer 1

Answer:

$v = 0.92 m/s$

Explanation:

As we know that there is no external horizontal force on the cannon ball + performer

So here total momentum of the system must be conserved

so we will have

$m_1v_1 = (m_1 + m_2) v_f$

$m_1 = 8.5 kg$

$v_1 = 8.1 m/s$

$m_2 = 66 kg$

now from above equation we have

$8.5 \times 8.1 = (8.5 + 66) v$

$v = 0.92 m/s$