Two carts are involved in an inelastic collision. cart a with mass 0.900 kg hits cart b with mass 0.550 kg (initially at rest). the two carts stick together after the collision and continue to move along together. cart a has an initial velocity of 0.5 m/s . part a what is the final velocity of the two-cart system? part b what is the initial kinetic energy of cart a?

Explanation:

We know that linear momentum must be conserved, so linear momentum at the initial stage (before collision) must be equal to linear momentum at the final stage (after collision): .

We call the mass of cart A, its velocity before the collision, the mass of cart B, its velocity before the collision and v the velocity of both together.

Linear momentum at the initial stage is:

Linear momentum at the final stage is:

So we have:

Which means:

We substitute our values to get:

And since the equation for kinetic energy is we substitute our values for A at the initial stage:

what was the answer?