Imagine you have just witnessed a small avalanche on a mountain while skiing, and two slushy snowballs just crashed together in
a perfectly inelastic collision. They are moving as one larger snowball, as a combined mass. Before the collision, snowball A was 7 kg and had initial momentum of –14 kg · m/s; therefore, its velocity must have been ? m/s Snowball B had initial momentum of 15 kg ∙ m/s, and a velocity of 5 m/s; therefore, its mass must have been ? kg.
Recognizing that momentum is conserved in inelastic collisions, the total momentum of the combined snowballs after the collision must be ? kg · m/s.
We have that the momentum p is given by the formula p=mv where m is the mass and v is the velocity. Since for A p=-14kgm/s and m=7, we have that the velocity is -14/7=-2m/s. Hence its speed is 2 m/s. For b we have that p=15kgm/s and v=3m/s. Because m=p/v, we have m=3kg. We also have that the momentum is conserved in this system. Hence, the net sum of the momentum of the 2 snowballs equals the momentum of the single giant ball. Hence, p(total)=p(combined)=-14+15=1kgm/s (momentum is a vector; the positive sign means that it tends to the positive direction).
The amount of each gas that can dissolve in the ocean depends on the solubility and saturation of the gas in water. Solubility refers to the amount of a dissolved gas that the water can hold under a particular set of conditions, which are usually defined as 0o C and 1 atmosphere of pressure.
