0.24 Phy1215: energy -- elastic and inelastic collisions in two

Table of contents

• Preface
  • General
  • Prerequisites
  • Viewing tip
    • Figures
    • Listings
  • Supplemental material
• Discussion
• Example scenarios
  • One-dimensional scenarios
    • The rear end car crash
    • A perfectly inelastic car crash
  • Two-dimensional scenarios
    • Elastic collision between two pucks on friction-free ice
    • Perfectly inelastic collision between objects with odd angles
    • Rotating the axes for simplification
• Run the scripts
• Resources
• Miscellaneous

Preface

General

This module is part of a book (or collection) designed to make physics concepts accessible to blind students. The collection is intended to supplement but not to replace thetextbook in an introductory course in high school or college physics.

This module explains elastic and inelastic collisions in two dimensions in a format that is accessible to blind students.

Prerequisites

In addition to an Internet connection and a browser, you will need the following tools (as a minimum) to work through the exercises in these modules:

• A graph board for plotting graphs and vector diagrams ( (External Link) ).
• A protractor for measuring angles ( (External Link) ).
• An audio screen reader that is compatible with your operating system, such as the NonVisual Desktop Access program (NVDA), which is freelyavailable at (External Link) .
• A refreshable Braille display capable of providing a line by line tactile output of information displayed on the computer monitor ( (External Link) ).
• A device to create Braille labels. Will be used to label graphsconstructed on the graph board.

The minimum prerequisites for understanding the material in these modules include:

• A good understanding of algebra.
• An understanding of the use of a graph board for plotting graphs and vector diagrams ( (External Link) ).
• An understanding of the use of a protractor for measuring angles ( (External Link) ).
• A basic understanding of the use of sine, cosine, and tangent from trigonometry ( (External Link) ).
• An introductory understanding of JavaScript programming ( (External Link) and (External Link) ).
• An understanding of all of the material covered in the earlier modules in this collection.

Viewing tip

I recommend that you open another copy of this document in a separate browser window and use the following links to easily find and view the figuresand listings while you are reading about them.

Figures

• Figure 1 . Equations for collisions of two objects in two-dimensional space.
• Figure 2 . Output for the rear end car crash.
• Figure 3 . Output for the perfectly inelastic car crash.
• Figure 4 . Output for an elastic collision between two pucks on friction-free ice.
• Figure 5 . Output for a perfectly inelastic collision between objects with odd angles.
• Figure 6 . Output for rotation of the axes for simplification.

Listings

• Listing 1 . The rear end car crash.
• Listing 2 . A perfectly inelastic car crash.
• Listing 3 . Elastic collision between two pucks on friction-free ice.
• Listing 4 . Perfectly inelastic collision between objects with odd angles.
• Listing 5 . Rotation of the axes for simplification.