Newton's executive paperweight

Classical Mechanics Level 3

Consider Newton's cradle shown above.

Suppose you start motion by pulling two balls on the right and one ball on the left to the same height (leaving the other two hanging at rest in the middle), and letting them go simultaneously. What happens after they collide with the balls at rest?

Image Source: Wikipedia
The leftmost ball swings out while the other four remain at rest. The two rightmost balls swing out, as does the leftmost one. The two leftmost balls swing out, as does the rightmost ball.

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Josh Silverman by Josh Silverman

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1 solution

Abhishek Sinha
May 19, 2015

Conservation of energy implies three balls fly off. This, taken together with conservation of momentum implies two left most balls fly as well as one rightmost ball.

7 Helpful 0 Interesting 0 Brilliant 0 Confused

Or do an argument by symmetry. I didn't.

Jake Lai - 6 years ago

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