Mechanical Energy Changes in Perfectly Inelastic Collisions

Abstract

Suppose a block of mass m( sub 1) traveling at speed v(sub 1) makes a one-dimensional perfectly inelastic collision with another block of mass m( sub 2). What else does one need to know to calculate the fraction of the mechanical energy that is dissipated in the collision? One needs to know the velocity v(sub 2) of the other block (defining its sign to be positive if it is in the same direction of travel as the first block, and negative otherwise). That makes sense because there is nothing special about the first block compared to the second one; the energy loss must be the same if we interchange subscripts 1 and 2.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA587045

Entities

People

  • Carl E. Mungan

Organizations

  • United States Naval Academy

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Collisions
  • Copyrights
  • Energy
  • Information Operations
  • Instructors
  • Kinetic Energy
  • Mechanical Energy
  • Momentum
  • Pendulums
  • Railroad Cars
  • United States Naval Academy

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Analytical Mechanics
  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Structural Dynamics.