A 2575 kg van runs into the back of a 825 kg compact car at rest. The move off together at 8.5 m/s. Assuming the friction with the road can be negligible, find the initial speed of the van.

The overall momentum of the system is always conserved according to the law of momentum. Momentum of the system after collision is equal to the momentum of the system before collision.

Momentum= mass*velocity;

The momentum of the system after collision= (2575+825)*8.5 = 28900kg⋅m/s;

The momentum of system before collision = 28900 kg⋅m/s;

28900= momentum of van + momentum of car

28900= 2575*v +825*0

V=11.2 m/s

aksnkj aksnkj · Answer 2 · 2021-12-09T13:34:36+01:00

The initial speed of the van will be 11.22 m/s.

Given information:

A 2575 kg van runs into the back of an 825 kg compact car at rest.

After the impact, they both move together at 8.5 m/s.

The friction with the road is negligible.

So, the momentum of the system will be conserved.

Let initial velocity of the van be u. Initial speed of car will be 0 m/s as i was at rest.

Now, equate the initial and final momentum of the system to get the value of u,

[tex]2575u+825\times 0=(2575+825)\times 8.5\\2575u=(2575+825)\times 8.5\\2575u=28900\\u=11.22\rm\;m/s[/tex]

Therefore, the initial speed of the van will be 11.22 m/s.

For more details, refer to the link:

https://brainly.com/question/3920210