Physics of a Rear-End Collision
Physics of a Rear-End Collision
Two cars travel in the same direction on a slippery road. Initially they are 16 m apart. They have a rear-end collision at time and travel together after that. Their masses are (blue) and (red), and their velocities are and . Using conservation of momentum, the velocity after the collision is calculated, as is the kinetic energy lost in the collision.
t
c
m
1
m
2
v
1
v
2