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Senjai
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[SOLVED-Thanks AL]Mechanical Energy loss due to NC Forces: two railroad cars collide.
SOLVED! - Thanks Al!
Two railroad cars each of mass 4800 kg and traveling @ 80 km/h collide head on and come to rest. How much thermal energy is produced in this collision?
[tex] E_k + E_p = E^{'}_k + E^{'}_p + Q [/tex]
This problem does not use momentum. Energy considerations only.
I treat one car as a single entity.
Energy before = energy after.
There was only an initial kinetic energy at the beginning and no kinetic energy afterwards. so i assume all the energy was transformed to Q.
[tex] \frac{1}{2}mv^2 = Q [/tex]
after finding 80 km/h = 22.2222... m/s
i solved and got 1.2 x 10^6 J, the answer is double that, 2.4 x 10^6 J, where did i go wrong?
SOLVED! - Thanks Al!
Homework Statement
Two railroad cars each of mass 4800 kg and traveling @ 80 km/h collide head on and come to rest. How much thermal energy is produced in this collision?
Homework Equations
[tex] E_k + E_p = E^{'}_k + E^{'}_p + Q [/tex]
The Attempt at a Solution
This problem does not use momentum. Energy considerations only.
I treat one car as a single entity.
Energy before = energy after.
There was only an initial kinetic energy at the beginning and no kinetic energy afterwards. so i assume all the energy was transformed to Q.
[tex] \frac{1}{2}mv^2 = Q [/tex]
after finding 80 km/h = 22.2222... m/s
i solved and got 1.2 x 10^6 J, the answer is double that, 2.4 x 10^6 J, where did i go wrong?
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