Ice Skater Momentum
Classical Mechanics
Level
2
A projectile (mass = 0.20 kg) is fired at and embeds itself in a stationary target (mass = 2.50 kg). With what percentage of the projectile's incident kinetic energy does the target (with the projectile in it) fly off after being struck?
The answer is 7.4.
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1 solution
Remember that kinetic energy is calculated using 2 1 m v 2 . The mass of the object remains constant, and the only variable that affects kinetic energy in this case is velocity. We can use conservation of momentum m 1 v 1 = m 2 v 2 to solve for the ratio of velocity's that comes out to be 0.074