Collisions and Isolated Systems Graphs#

The figure below shows the velocity versus time graphs of two different collisions. The graph on the left shows a collision between cart A and cart S. The graph of the right shows a collision between cart B and cart S.

Two graphs of velocity versus time depicting a collision between two carts. The difference in velocity between Cart A and S is larger than the velocity difference between Cart B and S, at both the beginning and the end of the graph.

Part 1#

If \(\frac{m_A}{m_S}\) = 1/2 and \(\frac{m_B}{m_S}\) = 3, for which of the collisions is the system of carts an isolated system?

Answer Section#

  • I

  • II

  • I & II

  • Neither

Attribution#

Problem is licensed under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
The Creative Commons 4.0 license requiring attribution-BY, non-commercial-NC, and share-alike-SA license.