Walker, Physics, 3rd Edition

Chapter 9

Conceptual Questions

1. If you drop your keys, their momentum increases as they fall. Why is the momentum of the keys not

conserved? Does this mean that the momentum of the universe increases as the keys fall? Explain.

7. Crash statistics show that it is safer to be riding in a heavy car in an accident than in a light car. Explain in

terms of physical principles.

Conceptual Exercises

3. A block of wood is struck by a bullet. Is the block more likely to be knocked over if the bullet is metal and

embeds itself in the wood, or if the bullet is rubber and bounces off the wood?

8. Suppose you throw a rubber ball at a charging elephant (not a good idea). When the ball bounces back toward

you, is its speed greater than, less than, or equal to the speed with which you threw it?

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Problems

Note: IP denotes an integrated conceptual/quantitative problem. BIO identifies problems of biological or medical

interest. Red bullets (•, ••, •••) are used to indicate the level of difficulty of each problem.

Section 9–1 Linear Momentum

1. • Referring to Exercise 9–1, what speed must the baseball have if its momentum is to be equal in magnitude

to that of the car? Give your result in miles per hour.

EXERCISE 9-1

(a) A 1180-kg car drives along a city street at 30.0 miles per hour (13.4 m/s). What is the magnitude of the

car’s momentum? (b) A major-league pitcher can give a 0.142-kg baseball a speed of 101 mi/hr (45.1

m/s). Find the magnitude of the baseball’s momentum.

Solution:

a. Using p = mv, we find

pc = mcvc = (1800 kg)(13.4 m/s) = 15,800 kg‧m/s

b. Similarly,

pb = mbvb = (0.142 kg)(45.1 m/s) = 6.40 kg‧m/s

6. •• IP A 220-g ball falls vertically downward, hitting the floor with a speed of 2.5 m/s and rebounding upward

with a speed of 2.0 m/s. (a) Find the magnitude of the change in the ball’s momentum. (b) Find the change in

the magnitude of the ball’s momentum. (c) Which of the two quantities calculated in parts (a) and (b) is more

directly related to the net force acting on the ball during its collision with the floor? Explain.

Section 9–3 Impulse

10. • A 0.50-kg croquet ball is initially at rest on the grass. When the ball is struck by a mallet, the average force

exerted on it is 230 N. If the ball’s speed after being struck is 3.2 m/s, how long was the mallet in contact

with the ball?

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13. •• To make a bounce pass, a player throws a 0.60-kg basketball toward the floor. The ball hits the floor with a

speed of 5.4 m/s at an angle of 65° to the vertical. If the ball rebounds with the same speed and angle, what

was the impulse delivered to it by the floor?

15. •• A player bounces a 0.43-kg soccer ball off her head, changing the velocity of the ball from
 
v i (8.8 m s)x  (  2.3 m s)y to v f (5.2 m s)x  (3.7 m s)y . If the ball is in contact with the player’s head

for 6.7 ms, what are (a) the direction and (b) the magnitude of the impulse delivered to the ball?

Section 9–4 Conservation of Momentum

17. • Two ice skaters stand at rest in the center of an ice rink. When they push off against one another the 45-kg

skater acquires a speed of 0.62 m/s. If the speed of the other skater is 0.89 m/s, what is this skater’s mass?

20. •• A 92-kg astronaut and a 1200-kg satellite are at rest relative to the space shuttle. The astronaut pushes on

the satellite, giving it a speed of 0.14 m/s directly away from the shuttle. Seven-and-a-half seconds later the

astronaut comes into contact with the shuttle. What was the initial distance from the shuttle to the astronaut?

21. •• IP An 85-kg lumberjack stands at one end of a 380-kg floating log, as shown in Figure 9–17. Both the log

and the lumberjack are at rest initially. (a) If the lumberjack now trots toward the other end of the log with a

speed of 2.7 m/s relative to the log, what is the lumberjack’s speed relative to the shore? Ignore friction

between the log and the water. (b) If the mass of the log had been greater, would the lumberjack’s speed

relative to the shore be greater than, less than, or the same as in part (a)? Explain. (c) Check your answer to

part (b) by calculating the lumberjack’s speed relative to the shore for the case of a 450-kg log.

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Section 9–5 Inelastic Collisions

25. • Two 78.0-kg hockey players skating at 5.25 m/s collide and stick together. If the angle between their initial

directions was 115°, what is their speed after the collision?

Section 9–6 Elastic Collisions

33. •• In the apple-orange collision in Example 9–7 – in

which a 0.130 kg apple moving at v x = +1.11 m/s

collides in a spaceship with a 0.160 kg orange moving

at vx = – 1.21 m/s – suppose the final velocity of the

orange is 1.03 m/s in the negative y direction. What is

the final speed and direction of the apple in this case?

General Problems

57. •• A 1.25-kg block of wood sits at the edge of a table, 0.752 m above the floor. A 0.0105-kg bullet moving

horizontally with a speed of 725 m/s embeds itself within the block. What horizontal distance does the block

cover before hitting the ground?

66. •• A young hockey player stands at rest on the ice holding a 1.1-kg helmet. The player tosses the helmet with

a speed of 6.2 m/s in a direction 13° above the horizontal, and recoils with a speed of 0.25 m/s. Find the mass

of the hockey player.

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70. •• The three air carts shown in Figure 9-27 have masses, reading from left to right, of m, 2m, and 4m,

respectively. Initially, the cart on the right is at rest, whereas the other two carts are moving to the right with a

speed v0 . All carts are equipped with putty bumpers that give completely inelastic collisions. (a) Find the

final speed of the carts.

71. •• IP A fireworks rocket is launched vertically into the night sky with an initial speed of 44.2 m/s. The rocket

coasts after being launched, then explodes and breaks into two pieces of equal mass 2.50 s later. (a) If each

piece follows a trajectory that is initially at 45.0° to the vertical, what was their speed immediately after the

explosion? (b) What is the velocity of the rocket’s center of mass before and after the explosion? (c) What is

the acceleration of the rocket’s center of mass before and after the explosion?

72. •• IP The total momentum of two cars approaching an intersection is


p total (15,000 kg m s)x  (2100 kg m s)y . (a) If the momentum of car 1 is

p1 (11,000 kg m s)x  (  370 kg m s)y , what is the momentum of car 2? (b) Does your answer to part (a)

depend on which car is closer to the intersection? Explain.

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1984B2. Two objects of masses Ml = 1 kilogram and M2 = 4 kilograms are free to
slide on a horizontal frictionless surface. The objects collide and the magnitudes
and directions of the velocities of the two objects before and after the collision are
shown on the diagram above. (sin 37° = 0.6, cos 37° = 0.8, tan 37º = 0.75)
a. Calculate the x and y components (px and py, respectively) of the momenta of
the two objects before and after the collision, and write your results in the
proper places in the following table.

b. Show, using the data that you listed in the table, that linear momentum is
conserved in this collision.