Question

A 16 kg object and a 25 kg object are connected by a massless compressed spring and rest on a frictionless table. After the spring is released, the object with the smaller mass has a velocity of 4 m/s to the left. What is the velocity of the object with the larger mass?
Answer in units of m/s.

Answer 1

The velocity of the object with the larger mass is 2.56 m/s.

The given parameters:

• Mass of the first object, m₁ = 16 kg
• Mass of the second object, m₂ = 25 kg
• Speed of the smaller object, v₁ = 4 m/s
• Speed of the larger object, v₂ = ?

The speed of the larger mass is determined by applying the principle of conservation of linear momentum as follows;

$m_1v_1 = m_2v_2\\\\v_2 = \frac{m_1v_1}{m_2} \\\\v_2 = \frac{16\times 4}{25} \\\\v_2 = 2.56 \ m/s$

Thus, the velocity of the object with the larger mass is 2.56 m/s.

Learn more about conservation of linear momentum here: https://brainly.com/question/7538238