IB Physics HL A.2.16 Linear momentum conservation
IB Physics HL A.2.16 Linear momentum conservation
Build collision and recoil fluency by conserving linear momentum, finding shared speeds, and comparing how kinetic energy is split.
How this is tested
- write momentum before = momentum after, with signs, to solve an unknown velocity in a collision
- for recoil, set equal and opposite momenta and use KE = p^2/2m to compare energy shares
- for sticking collisions, combine masses in the final state before solving the common speed