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Some notes made during making the collision demo

Written by Nasser M. Abbasi

June 28, 2015
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Given 2 particles v,u  with velocity components as shown.

PIC

In elastic collision linear momentum in the x  and y  directions holds

pict

In addition, kinetic energy is constant. Let v21 = (v21x +v21y) , v22 = (v22x + v22y),V12= (V12x + V12y) , V22= (V22x + V22y) then

pict

We have 3 equations above, but 4 unknowns (V1x,V1y,V2x,V2y)  . The 4th equation comes from knowing that after collision, particles will travel at   0
90  trajectories.