Crashing Cars

There are two types of collisions: elastic and inelastic. An elastic collision is a collision in which the objects involved bounce off of each other. Think of a being hit with a pillow during a pillow fight--that is an elastic collision. An inelastic collision is also known as a sticky collision. For this one, think of being hit with a snowball, or a massive ball of tape. Because both objects stick together, there is only one velocity for these collisions.

Previously we did an experiment that tested mass, velocity, and both collisions. My group personally had a lot of difficulty, but we managed to complete it. The elastic collision in which the more massive car hit the lighter car at rest was my personal favorite. It demonstrated how momentum is conserved. To make up for the lack of mass the heavier car had, the lighter car took on a faster speed.

Note: To find the velocity of the mass of an inelastic collision, the equation is as follows.

v = (p1 + p2)/(m1 + m2)