Inelastic Collisions Video Lessons

Example

# Problem: Most geologists believe that the dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago when a large comet or asteroid struck the earth, throwing up so much dust that the sun was blocked out for a period of many months. Suppose an asteroid with a diameter of 2.0 km and a mass of 0.80*1013  kg hits the earth (6.0*1024 kg) with an impact speed of 4.1*104 m/s^{4} m m/s. What is the earth’s recoil speed after such a collision? (Use a reference frame in which the earth was initially at rest.)

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###### Problem Details

Most geologists believe that the dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago when a large comet or asteroid struck the earth, throwing up so much dust that the sun was blocked out for a period of many months. Suppose an asteroid with a diameter of 2.0 km and a mass of 0.80*1013  kg hits the earth (6.0*1024 kg) with an impact speed of 4.1*104 m/s. What is the earth’s recoil speed after such a collision? (Use a reference frame in which the earth was initially at rest.)