A 2,900-kg truck runs into the rear of a 1,000-kg car that was stationary. The truck and car are locked together after the collision and move with speed 5 m/s. What was the speed of the truck before the collision?

Question

anonymous · Answer

Ok I get it this is a one dimensional collision

anonymous · Answer

According to the laws of conservation of momentum all momentum is conserved no matter what

anonymous · Answer

You have to calculate the momentum the first truck has before colliding onto the other vehicle. So 2900*v=3900*5

Where v is the veocity before the collision and righit side of the equation represents the total momentum after. But for the sake of simpicity let's leave the units out of our way

anonymous · Answer

You isolate the v and get the velocity before collision for the 2900 kg truck