Answer:
Explanation:
According to the Law of Momentum Conservation, what happens after the collision has to equal what happened before the collision because momentum cannot be created nor destroyed; it has to go somewhere else. Like energy eventually dissipates into heat. The equation for this is:
[tex][m_Av_A+m_Bv_B)]_b=[(m_Av_A+m_Bv_B)]_a[/tex] and filling in our info, calling right positive and left negative:
[(24(3.2) + 32(-12.8)] = [(24(-2.9) + 32(vB)] and
[(77 - 410)] = [(-7.0 × 10¹ + 32vB)] and
-330 = -7.0 × 10¹ + 32vB and
-260 = 32vB so
vB = -8.1 m/s Thus, cart B is moving to the left at a velocity of 8.1 m/s
(I used the rules for sig dig very intentionally and correctly; I'm not sure how strict your teacher is about them. I require my students to use the rules to perfection, as I did here.)
