A space module is at rest in space relative to the background of the stars. It i

Question

A space module is at rest in space relative to the background of the stars. It is struck by a small meteorite, (a) Without doing any calculations, guess which of the following causes the space mod­ule to gain greater speed: the meteorite makes a perfectly inelastic collision with the module or the meteorite makes a perfectly elas­tic collision with the module, (b) Now test your intuitive answer lo part (a) by calculating the final speed of the module if the module has a mass of 100. kg and the meteorite has mass of 10.0 kg and an original speed of 1.00 km/s.

Explanation / Answer

Perfectly elastic colloison: Meteorite comes to rest and module starts moving.

Perfectly inelastic colloison: meteorite and module start moving together.

Intuiton: As in Perfectly inelastic colloison, some loass of energy takes place, hence final Kinetic energy of module+meteorite system will be less as compared to Perfectly elastic colloison. => Perfectly elastic colloison:can cause module to gain greater velocity.

M = 100 , m = 10 , vi = 1000 m/s

In both Perfectly elastic colloison and Perfectly inelastic colloison, Conservation of momentum applies.

Perfectly elastic colloison: vf = m*vi / M = 10*1000/100 = 100 m/s

Perfectly inelastic colloison: vf = m*vi / (M+m) = 10*1000/110 = 90.91 m/s

Verified our intuition

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