Solved Example Problems for Elastic collisions in one dimension

Solved Example Problems for Elastic collisions in one dimension

Example 4.20

A lighter particle moving with a speed of 10 m s-1 collides with an object of double its mass moving in the same direction with half its speed. Assume that the collision is a one dimensional elastic collision. What will be the speed of both particles after the collision?

Solution

Let the mass of the fi rst body be m which  moves with an initial velocity, u1 = 10 m s-1.

Therefore, the mass of second body is 2m and its initial velocity is u2 = ½ u1 = ½(10ms-1)

Then, the fi nal velocities of the bodies can be calculated from the equation (4.53) and equation (4.54)

As the two speeds v1and v2 are positive, they move in the same direction with the velocities, 3.33 m s−1 and 8.33 m s−1 respectively.