sharrymaan
The law of momentum conservation can be stated as follows. For a collision occurring between object 1 and object 2 in an isolated system, the total momentum of the two objects before the collision is equal to the totalmomentum of the two objects after the collision.
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Skthebest
I'm wondering how we can predict how velocities following a collision of two masses will change post collision without relying on expectations as to what will happen in a particular type of collision.
With two masses m1m1 and m2m2 at initial velocities along a one dimensional axis v1i=vxi^v1i=vxi^ and v2i=0i^v2i=0i^ where c1c1 and c2c2 are some constant velocities, we have conservation of linear momentum.
I'm wondering if it is possible to theoretically predict what will happen in various cases of collisions without apriori knowledge of what the properties of these collisions are.
In our case, how can we predict that when m1m1 hits m2m2 it will transfer all its momentum to m2m2? Sure if we already knew that its velocity goes to 00 we could use the equation of momentum conservation to solve for the final velocity of m2m2 or vice versa. But if we didn't know that v1v1 goes to 00 post collision, how could we get this result theoretically and not empirically?
Answers & Comments
With two masses m1m1 and m2m2 at initial velocities along a one dimensional axis v1i=vxi^v1i=vxi^ and v2i=0i^v2i=0i^ where c1c1 and c2c2 are some constant velocities, we have conservation of linear momentum.
I'm wondering if it is possible to theoretically predict what will happen in various cases of collisions without apriori knowledge of what the properties of these collisions are.
In our case, how can we predict that when m1m1 hits m2m2 it will transfer all its momentum to m2m2? Sure if we already knew that its velocity goes to 00 we could use the equation of momentum conservation to solve for the final velocity of m2m2 or vice versa. But if we didn't know that v1v1 goes to 00 post collision, how could we get this result theoretically and not empirically?