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SuperHero
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Homework Statement
During the warm-up for the 1990 Olympics free skating competition, Debi Thomas, mass 60kg, moving at 5 m/s and looking intently at her coach, collides with Katerina Witt, mass 65 kg,who is smiling at a photographer. The two skaters were moving at right angles to each other.After the collision, they hang on to each other and jointly move at an angle of 37 relative to Debi's original direction. How fast was Katerina traveling before the collision?
The Attempt at a Solution
http://s1302.beta.photobucket.com/user/Rameel17/media/Untitled_zps4d1ae6dc.png.html
This is the diagram that i came up with and here is my calculation:
m1v1 + m2v2 = mtv0
(60kg)(5m/s[E]) + (65kg)(v2) = (125kg)(vo)[E 37 N]
So what i did was i divided the m1v1 and m2v2 seperately with the total something like this:
m2v1 = mtv0
(60kg)(5m/s[E]) = (125kg)(vo)[E 37 N]
300 kgm/s [E]/125kg = (vo)(cos 37[E])
2.4 m/s[E]/ (cos 37[E]) = vo
vo = 3.00512558m/s
so i found the final total velocity, now to find the intial katerine's velocity
m2v2[N] = mtv0[E 37 N]
(65kg)(v2) = (125kg)(3.00512558m/s)(sin 37)
v2 = 3.4779177 m/s
Thats the answer.
is my process correct?