Asmall car (mass = 156.75 kilograms), moving at 115.5 m/s, crashes head on with a 627 kg truck moving at -74.25 m/s in the opposite direction. if the two cars become intertwined and mangled (inelastic), with what velocities does the wreckage move? (include directions)

explain this to i'm trying to understand this topic and i need some : /

-36.3 m/s

Explanation:

The collision is inelastic, so the total kinetic energy is not conserved. However, the total momentum before and after the collision is still conserved. So we can write:

where

is the mass of the car

is the velocity of the car before the collision

is the mass of the truck

is the velocity of the truck before the collision

is the velocity of the car+truck after the collision

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

And the negative sign means the direction is the same as the original direction of the truck.