During the battle of Gettysburg, the gunfire was so intense that several bullets collided in mid-air and fused together. Assume a 5.07 g Union musket ball was moving to the right at a speed of 243 m/s, 19.5° above the horizontal, and that a 3.01 g Confederate ball was moving to the left at a speed of 280 m/s, 15.5° above the horizontal. Immediately after they fuse together, what is their velocity?in m/s i + m/s j form.I'm not sure how to do this problem. I know I have to split them into components but I'm really lost on this.
Since we have an inelastic collision the kinetic energy is not conserved. The momentum is conserved: m1V1 - m2V2 (m1 + m2)V V [m1V1 - m2V2]/[m1 + m2] A momentum is a vector quantity since it contains velocity in its product. Splinting in two components we have For x-axis or i components Vx [m1V1cos(19.5) - m2V2cos(15.5)]/[m1 + m2] And for for y-axis or j components Vy [m1V1sin(19.5) + m2V2sin(15.5)]/[m1 + m2] They are moving in the a positive direction in x, however they are moving in a positive direction in y. Hmm. I did not know that confederates used a much lighter round. Perhaps this is why I'm saying notin!
