Question

A 3.0-kg cart moving to the right with a speed of 1.0 m/s has a head-on collision with a 5.0-kg cart that is initially moving to the left with a speed of 2.0 m/s. After the collision, the 3.0-kg cart is moving to the left with a speed of 1.0 m/s. What is the final velocity of the 5.0-kg cart?

Answer 1

Answer:

$v = 0.8 m/s$ towards left

Explanation:

As we know that there is no external force on the system of two cart so total momentum of the system is conserved

so we will say

$m_1v_{1i} + m_2v_{2i} = m_1v_{1f} + m_2v_{2f}$

now plug in all data into the above equation

$3(1) + 5(-2) = 3(-1) + 5 v$

here we assumed that left direction of motion is negative while right direction is positive

so we can solve it for speed v now

$3 - 10 = - 3 + 5 v$

$5 v = -4$

$v = -0.8 m/s$