Back to 8.5 Inelastic Collisions in One Dimension

Professional Application

Avg difficulty 2.5

Using mass and speed data from the reference and assuming that the football player catches the ball with his feet off the ground with both of them moving horizontally, calculate: (a) the final velocity if the ball and player are going in the same direction and (b) the loss of kinetic energy in this case. (c) Repeat parts (a) and (b) for the situation in which the ball and the player are going in opposite directions. Might the loss of kinetic energy be related to how much it hurts to catch the pass?

OpenStax College Physics 2e, 8.5 Inelastic Collisions in One Dimension, exercise 16

AI Tutor

Adapted from College Physics © 2022 Rice University. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Sources: College Physics 2e, College Physics for AP® Courses 2e. Imported at revision f98d7a7.