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5.5 Exercise 9

Avg difficulty 2.5

In a frame at rest with respect to the billiard table, a billiard ball of mass m moving with speed v strikes another billiard ball of mass m at rest. The first ball comes to rest after the collision while the second ball takes off with speed v in the original direction of the motion of the first ball. This shows that momentum is conserved in this frame. (a) Now, describe the same collision from the perspective of a frame that is moving with speed v in the direction of the motion of the first ball. (b) Is the momentum conserved in this frame?

OpenStax University Physics Volume 3, 5.5 The Lorentz Transformation, exercise 9

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Adapted from University Physics Volume 3 © 2016 Rice University. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source: University Physics Volume 3. Imported at revision db44eb9.