Answer:
The final speed of the two carts stuck together after the collision is 1 m/s
Explanation:
This is an example of an inelastic collision where two separate carts each with different momentum collide and become a single object.
The conservation of momentum (p) equation is: where is the initial momentum of cart 1:
Notice that cart 2 is at rest, therefore its velocity is zero, which makes its initial momentum zero:
The final momentum () for which we don't know the velocity () is the product of the final mass (addition of the two masses) times the final velocity of this new object (two carts stuck together):
Now we re-write the conservation of momentum equation to isolate and obtain the unknown final velocity: