Question

2,000 kg car moving at 5 m/sec to east collides with 6,000 kg car moving 3 m/sec to west. If cars couple together, what is their velocity?

Answer 1

The final velocity is 1 m/s west

Explanation:

The problem can be solved by using the principle of conservation of momentum: in an isolated system, the total momentum of the system must be conserved before and after the collision. So we can write:

$p_i = p_f\\m_1 u_1 + m_2 u_2 = (m_1+m_2)v$

where:

$m_1 = 2000 kg$ is the mass of the first car

$u_1 = 5 m/s$ is the initial velocity of the first car (we take east as positive direction)

$m_2 = 6000 kg$ is the mass of the second car

$u_2 = -3 m/s$ is the initial velocity of the second car

$v$ is the final velocity of the two cars together after the collision

Re-arranging the equation and substituting the values, we find:

$v = \frac{m_1 u_1+m_2 u_2}{m_1+m_2}=\frac{(2000)(5)+(6000)(-3)}{2000+6000}=-1 m/s$

And since the sign is negative, the direction is to west.

Learn more about momentum here:

brainly.com/question/7973509  

brainly.com/question/6573742  

brainly.com/question/2370982  

brainly.com/question/9484203  

#LearnwithBrainly