Question

Joaquin has hockey practice at the same ice rink where Alton has curling practice. One day, they were both playing on the ice with their equipment. They noticed two crashes in particular: In Crash 1, Alton’s curling stone with more mass was moving along and crashed into Joaquin's hockey puck. In Crash 2, Alton's curling stone with less mass was moving along and crashed into Joaquin's hockey puck. It was the same hockey puck with the same mass in both crashes. Joaquin and Alton want to know about the motion of the hockey puck after the crashes. Why would the crash affect the hockey puck, and which crash would cause a greater change in motion for the hockey puck?

Answer 1

Answer:

A greater change in motion in the hockey puck would be observed in the first crash.

Explanation:

• We we encounter such collisions in everyday life. Collision physics is a separate branch in physics that deals with all kinds of collisions.
• While the actual motion of the puck and the curling ball depends on various factors like the angle of collision, direction and speed of both objects before collision, let's assume that the puck was at rest and the curling balls of different masses were thrown at the same speed.
• The reason why any object moves after a collision is because of the law of conservation of momentum. Momentum is mass times velocity. When an object with a certain mass and velocity collides with another object, the energy is transferred between both and they exchange the energies respective to their momentum.
• For a head on collision, as given here, the mass times velocity of the first object gets transferred to the second one, owing to the mass of the second object.
• In the overall collision, the momentum gets conserved. If an object with a mass hits an object at rest, the object at rest gains velocity and the object at motion reduces its velocity. The quantity of speed reduced depends on the mass.
• Heavier the object or higher the velocity, that object will have a greater influence on the outcome of the collision.
• To put this in theory, m1*v1 = m2*v2. Here, m1*v1 is the momentum of the first object and m2*v2 is the momentum of the second object.
• Going by this theory, the crash 1 given in the question gives an outcome where the puck moves faster because the mass of the curling ball is higher in the first crash.