Question

Back on earth you are playing a strange version of shuffleboard (cyborgs sure know how to have fun). The objective of this game is to make the disk of your opponent (an alien) stop completely with a collision with your disk. There are two versions, in one you control the height from which you release your disk which then slides down the ramp, in the other you control the compression of a spring. Everything is frictionless, but the disks can have different masses. The length of the ramp that you can move up and down is 2 meters.

a) Your opponent’s disk is 0.2 kg and is traveling to the left with a speed of 1.5 m/s. Your disk is 0.1 kg and travels to the right. Use conservation of momentum to calculate the speed at which your disk should be traveling to stop your opponent’s disk.

b) If the spring constant is k = 200 N/m, use conservation of mechanical energy to calculate the compression of the spring that would make your opponent’s disk stop.

c) If the ramp length L = 2 meters, use conservation of mechanical energy to calculate the angle of the ramp that would make your opponent’s disk stop.

Answer 1