Why does Alpha Centauri appear to be yellow-white?
2 answers:
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Answer:
6 m/s is the missing final velocity
Explanation:
From the data table we extract that there were two objects (X and Y) that underwent an inelastic collision, moving together after the collision as a new object with mass equal the addition of the two original masses, and a new velocity which is the unknown in the problem).
Object X had a mass of 300 kg, while object Y had a mass of 100 kg.
Object's X initial velocity was positive (let's imagine it on a horizontal axis pointing to the right) of 10 m/s. Object Y had a negative velocity (imagine it as pointing to the left on the horizontal axis) of -6 m/s.
We can solve for the unknown, using conservation of momentum in the collision: Initial total momentum = Final total momentum (where momentum is defined as the product of the mass of the object times its velocity.
In numbers, and calling the initial momentum of object X and
the initial momentum of object Y, we can derive the total initial momentum of the system:
Since in the collision there is conservation of the total momentum, this initial quantity should equal the quantity for the final mometum of the stack together system (that has a total mass of 400 kg):
Final momentum of the system:
We then set the equality of the momenta (total initial equals final) and proceed to solve the equation for the unknown(final velocity of the system):