Figure 1 shows two railway trucks A and B travelling towards each other on the same railway line which is straight and horizontal.
Figure 1
The trucks are involved in an inelastic collision. They join when they collide and then move together.
Truck A has a total mass of 27 000 kg and truck B has a total mass of 22 000 kg.
Just before the collision, truck A was moving at a speed of 3.6 m s–1 and truck B was moving at a speed of 2.4 m s–1.
State what is meant by an ‘inelastic collision’.
Show that the speed of the joined trucks immediately after the collision is about 0.9 m s–1.
Calculate the impulse that acts on each truck during the collision.
Give an appropriate unit for your answer.
Explain, without doing a calculation, how the motion of the trucks immediately after the collision would be different for a collision that is perfectly elastic.
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