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2D Elastic Collisions



I have a student who is bothered by the fact that in a 2D collision
involving 2 masses (one at rest) there are seven variables (2 masses, three
speeds, and 2 directions) and only three equations (x momentum, y momentum,
and energy). This means that even if the three initial conditions are
known, only three of the final four conditions can be determined. This
implies that there are multiple possible outcomes for a specific
experiment. He wants to perform experiments to learn about this puzzle. Can
anyone shed light on this problem. Our Halliday, Resnick and Walker text
just says that one of the final conditions must be known.

Dan Burns
Los Gatos High School