Question

A 1000 kg car moving a 10 m/s collides with a stationary 2000 kg truck. The two vehicles interlock as a result of the collision. What is the final velocity of the two combined vehicles?

Answer 1

Answer:

v₃ = 3.33 [m/s]

Explanation:

This problem can be easily solved using the principle of linear momentum conservation. Which tells us that momentum is preserved before and after the collision.

In this way, we can propose the following equation in which everything that happens before the collision will be located to the left of the equal sign and on the right the moment after the collision.

$(m_{1}*v_{1})+(m_{2}*v_{2})=(m_{1}+m_{2})*v_{3}$

where:

m₁ = mass of the car = 1000 [kg]

v₁ = velocity of the car = 10 [m/s]

m₂ = mass of the truck = 2000 [kg]

v₂ = velocity of the truck = 0 (stationary)

v₃ = velocity of the two vehicles after the collision [m/s].

Now replacing:

$(1000*10)+(2000*0)=(1000+2000)*v_{3}\\v_{3}=3.33[m/s]$