Question

A low-friction track is set up with a spring on the right end. In the middle of the track, a 1.8-kg cart moving to the right at 5.0 m/s overtakes a 3.6-kg cart moving to the right at 2.0 m/s. After the collision, the 1.8-kg cart is moving at 1.7 m/s.

What is the coefficient of restitution of the collision?

How much energy is stored in the spring when it is at its maximum compression after the collision?

Answer 1

Answer: The total momentum in any closed system will remain constant.

When two or more objects collide, the collision does not change the

total momentum of the two objects.

Whatever momentum is lost by one object in the collision is gained

by the other. The total momentum of the system is conserved.