Creative Commons License Copyright © Michael Richmond. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Car rolls into truck and bounces off gently -- with more information

A car of mass m1 = 2000 kg rolling slowly at vi = 5 m/s bumps into a stationary truck of mass m2 = 15,000 kg. Afterwards, the car moves backwards with velocity v1f, and the truck creeps forward at v2f.

The collision is elastic, which means that the original kinetic energy of the bodies is the same as their final kinetic energy.

Which of the following are the final velocities?

  1. car 3.82 m/s to the left, truck 1.18 m/s to the right
  2. car 2.25 m/s to the left, truck 0.93 m/s to the right
  3. car 1.55 m/s to the left, truck 0.47 m/s to the right

Creative Commons License Copyright © Michael Richmond. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.