Answer:
The final velocity of the car A is -1.053 m/s.
Explanation:
For an elastic collision both the kinetic energy and the momentum of the system are conserved.
Let us call
= mass of car A;
= the initial velocity of car A;
= the final velocity of car A;
and
= mass of car B;
= the initial velocity of car B;
= the final velocity of car B.
Then, the law of conservation of momentum demands that
And the conservation of kinetic energy says that
These two equations are solved for final velocities and to give
by putting in the numerical values of the variables we get
and
Thus, the final velocity of the car A is -1.053 m/s and of car B is 3.49 m/s.