A 5.30 g bullet moving at 963 m/s strikes a 610 g wooden block at rest on a frictionless surface. The bullet emerges, traveling in the same direction with its speed reduced to 426 m/s. (a) What is the resulting speed of the block? (b) What is the speed of the bullet-block center of mass?

a) = 4.67m/s

b) V = 8.29 m/s

Explanation:

Givens:

The bullet is 5.30g moving at 963m/s and its speed reduced to 426m/s. The wooden block is 610g.

a) From conservation of linear momentum

Pi = Pf

where are the mass and the initial velocity of the bullet, and are the mass and the initial velocity of the wooden block, and and are the final velocities of the wooden block and the bullet

The wooden block is initial at rest this yields

By solving for adn substitute the givens

=

=

= 4.67m/s

b) The center of mass speed is defined as

substituting:

V = 8.29 m/s

scientific laws are the result of testing theories and proving them to be facts.