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studentcollage
Oct 21, 2008, 09:34 AM
A car of mass M ,traveling with a velocity V, strakes a parked station wagon, whose mass is 2M. The bumpers lack together in this head-on inelastic collision. What fraction of the intitial kinetic energy is lost in thus collision

ebaines
Oct 21, 2008, 09:54 AM
You should try and solve this yourself first, before simply posting the homewok problem here. However, I will give you a hint - you need to determine the final velocity of the two cars that are stuck together, and to do that you use the principal of conservation of momentum. Then you can determine the final kinetic energy of the 2 cars, and compare it against the initial KE.

studentcollage
Oct 21, 2008, 10:48 AM
I got 1/9
Is it right

ebaines
Oct 21, 2008, 12:00 PM
Not quite right. Please show us your math.