Question

During a circus act, an elderly performer thrills the crowd by catching a cannon ball shot at him. The cannon ball has a mass of 29.0 kg and its horizontal component of velocity is 8.00 m/s when the 65.0 kg performer catches it. If the performer is on nearly frictionless roller skates, what is his recoil velocity in meters per second?

Answer 1

Answer:

2.4681 m/s

Explanation:

$m_1$ = Mass of cannon ball = 29 kg

$m_2$ = Mass of performer = 65 kg

$u_1$ = Initial Velocity of cannon ball = 8 m/s

$u_2$ = Initial Velocity of performer = 0 m/s

v = Velocity of combined mass

As the linear momentum of the system conserved

$m_1u_1 + m_2u_2 =(m_1 + m_2)v\\\Rightarrow v=\frac{m_1u_1 + m_2u_2}{m_1 + m_2}\\\Rightarrow v=\frac{29\times 8 + 65\times 0}{29 + 65}\\\Rightarrow v=2.4681\ m/s$

The recoil velocity is 2.4681 m/s