Question

Football player a has a mass of 210 pounds and is running at a rate of 5.0 miles/hours he collides with a player b. Player B has a mass of 190 pounds and is running in the same direction at 3.0 miles/hours. Which of the following statement is true

Answer 1

according to conservation of momentum , in absence of external forces , the total momentum of system of the particles remain same both before and after collision.

momentum of colliding objects before collision = momentum of colliding objects after collision.

or

m1 v1i + m2 v2i = m2 v1f + m2 v2f

where m1 and m2 are the two colliding objects. v1i and v2i are their respective initial velocities before collision and v1f and v2f are their respective final velocities after collision.

hence the correct statement is

total momentum before the collision is equal to the momentum after collision.