Lesson 9 of 15
Elastic Collision
Conservation of Momentum
In any collision, total momentum is conserved:
Elastic Collisions
An elastic collision also conserves kinetic energy. Solving both conservation equations simultaneously gives the final velocities:
Special Cases
| Scenario | Result |
|---|---|
| Equal masses () | , (complete transfer) |
| Heavy hits light () | , (light bounces fast) |
| Light hits heavy () | , (light bounces back) |
Examples
| 1 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0.0000 (stops) |
| 2 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 3.3333 |
| 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 6.6667 |
Your Task
Implement elasticV1(m1, v1, m2, v2) returning the post-collision velocity of mass 1.
TCC compiler loading...
Loading...
Click "Run" to execute your code.