Problem 8-34 Elastic collision - B

A superball of mass $22\; g$ rolls with a speed of $3.5\; m/s$ toward another (stationary) superball of mass $27\; g$. If the balls have a head-on elastic collision, what are the velocities magnitudes and directions) of the balls after the collision?
[Ans. $3.1\; m/s$ forward and $0.4\; m/s$ backward]

Accumulated Solution

Correct!

If any unknown velocity is actually negative a minus sign will appear in the solution.

In terms of $m_1$, $m_2$, $v{_1}'$ and $v{_2}'$ what is the expression for the conservation of momentum according to the choice in the drawing (B)?

(A)   $m_1\; v_1 = m_1\; v{_1}'+ m_2\; v{_2}'$

(B)   $m_1\; v_1 = -m_1\; v{_1}'+ m_2\; v{_2}'$

(C)   $m_1\; v_1 = m_1\; v{_1}'- m_2\; v{_2}'$