During the battle of Gettysburg, the gunfire was so intense that several bullets collided in mid-air and fused together. Assume a 5g union musket ball was moving right at a speed of 250m/s, 20 degrees above the horizontal. A 3g confederate ball was moving to the left at a speed of 280m/s, 15 degrees above the horizontal. Immediately after they fuse together.1.what is their velocity??2.what is their kinetic energy??3.was this elastic or inelastic, why?
Answer part 1 using conservation of momentum Use the answer from part 1 to compute the kinetic energy of the fused bullets It was inelastic since the bullets stuck together 1) Since momentum is a vector quantity, we need to look at the horizontal and vertical components separately and then look at the resultant to find the outcome: Vertical: 1.25*sin(20)+.84*sin(15).008Vv 80.6m/s horizontal 1.25*cos(20)-.84*cos(15).008Vh 45.4m/s The resultant velocity is sqrt(80.6^2+45.4^2) 92.5m/s 2) The kinetic energy is 1/2*m*v^2 .5*.008*92.5*92.5 34.225 3) the kinetic energy before collision was .5*(.005*250*250+.003*280*280) 274 The loss in kinetic energy is typical in an inelastic collision j
