A student is trying to determine the muzzle
velocity (initial) of a bullet that is too fast to
measure directly. The student fires the 0.05kg
bullet into a 4kg block of wood initially at rest.
After the collision, the block, with the bullet
embedded inside moves to the right with a
speed of 1.87m/s right.
before collision:
Pbullet
Pblock
after collision:
Pcombined
kg m/s
kg m/s
kg m/s
How fast was the bullet fired?
m/s
