Question

A 4 kg object moving to the left collides with and sticks to a 3 kg object moving to the right. Which of the following is true of the motion of the combined objects immediately after the collision?
a. They must be moving to the left.
b. They must be moving to the right.
c. They must be at rest.
d. The motion cannot be determined without knowing the speeds of the objects before the collision.

Answer 1

Answer:

D. The motion cannot be determined without knowing the speeds of the objects before the collision.

Explanation:

This question is tricky! We know the object moving to the left has a greater mass than the one moving to the right. We'd assume they would move to the left because the leftwards object has a greater mass, right?

Not. So. Fast.

We can solve for the objects' final velocity using the formula for momentum, m₁v₁ + m₂v₂ = (m₁ + m₂)v .

Now here's where the trap is sprung: we don't think about the equation. This shows that the final velocity of the objects and the direction depends on both the mass of the objects and their initial velocity.

Basically, what if the 3 kg object is moving at 1 m/s and the 4 kg object is moving at –0.5 m/s? The objects would move to the right after the collision!

Do we know the velocity of these objects? No, right?

That means we can't determine the direction of their motion unless we know their initial, pre-collision velocity. This question is tricky because we look at the 4 kg vs. 3 kg and automatically assume the 4 kg object would dictate the direction of motion. That's not true. It depends on velocity as well.

I hope this helps you! Have a great day!