What Is the Angle of Deflection in Sphere Collisions?

[binbagsss]

What exactly do we mean by the angle of deflection?
Is the ‘angle the velocity is turned through equivalent’?

- does it tak into account the direction of the impulse , I ask because if it does, I am struggling to see how, I have attached an example where the impulse is in the direction of the line of centres of spheres.
(- To me, instinctively I would think that the angle of deflection would be given by PIE-B-A.
OR, is this instead the difference in the angle between the paths taken, the actual answer is simply B-A)
- Examples I have done, it always seems to be a difference of the angles : (the bigger one - smaller one )
- Am I correct in thinking that whether or not the angle is greater after is dependent upon the direction of the impulse, basically the line to which you describe it with respect to ?

Thanks alot, any help much appreaciated :)

 

[jbsteele]

The angle of deflection is the angle between the initial velocity of an object and the final velocity after it has been subjected to an external force or impulse. It is often referred to as the angle between the line of centres of the objects involved in the collision. The angle of deflection is the difference between the angle of the initial velocity and the angle of the final velocity, regardless of the direction of the impulse.