Question

A bullet with a mass of 0.005kg is moving at 500m/s and sticks into a block of wood with a mass of 5kg. What is the final velocity of the wood/bullet mass?

Answer 1

Answer:

0.5 m/s

Explanation:

We can solve the problem by using the law of conservation of momentum, which states that the total momentum before the collision must be equal to the total momentum after the collision:

$p_i = p_f\\m u_b + M u_B = (m + M)v$

where:

$m=0.005 kg$ is the mass of the bullet

$u_b = 500 m/s$ is the initial velocity of the bullet

$M=5 kg$ is the mass of the block

$u_B = 0$ is the initial velocity of the block

$v = ?$ is the final velocity of the bullet+block

Re-arrranging the equation and substituting numbers, we find:

$v=\frac{m u_b}{m+M}=\frac{(0.005 kg)(500 m/s)}{0.005 kg+5 kg}=0.5 m/s$