Question

A railroad car moving at a speed of 3.46 m/s overtakes, collides and couples with two coupled railroad cars moving in the same direction at 1.40 m/s. All cars have a mass of mass 1.6 104 kg. Determine the following.(a) speed of the three coupled cars after the collision (Give your answer to at least 2 decimal places.) m/s(b) kinetic energy lost in the collision J

Answer 1

Answer:

$2.09\ \text{m/s}$

$22298.4\ \text{J}$

Explanation:

m = Mass of each the cars = $1.6\times 10^4\ \text{kg}$

$u_1$ = Initial velocity of first car = 3.46 m/s

$u_2$ = Initial velocity of the other two cars = 1.4 m/s

v = Velocity of combined mass

As the momentum is conserved in the system we have

$mu_1+2mu_2=3mv\\\Rightarrow v=\dfrac{u_1+2u_2}{3}\\\Rightarrow v=\dfrac{3.46+2\times 1.4}{3}\\\Rightarrow v=2.09\ \text{m/s}$

Speed of the three coupled cars after the collision is $2.09\ \text{m/s}$.

As energy in the system is conserved we have

$K=\dfrac{1}{2}mu_1^2+\dfrac{1}{2}2mu_2^2-\dfrac{1}{2}3mv^2\\\Rightarrow K=\dfrac{1}{2}\times 1.6\times 10^4\times 3.46^2+\dfrac{1}{2}\times 2\times 1.6\times 10^4\times 1.4^2-\dfrac{1}{2}\times 3\times 1.6\times 10^4\times 2.09^2\\\Rightarrow K=22298.4\ \text{J}$

The kinetic energy lost during the collision is $22298.4\ \text{J}$.