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aeromat
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Homework Statement
A student flings a 23g ball of putty at a 225g cart sitting on a slanted air track that is 1.5m long .The track is slanted at an angle of 25° with the horizontal. If the putty is traveling at 4.2m/s when it hits the cart, will the cart reach the end of the track before it stops and slides back down?
Homework Equations
Conservation of Momentum, Energy
Work
The Attempt at a Solution
I set up the diagram so that the slant is the hypothenuse being 1.5m long at 25° to the horizontal, and found the opposite length (height) being 1.5sin25° = 0.634m
I then solved for how much potential energy the cart will have if it reaches the end of the ramp.
Ep = (0.0225)(9.81)(0.634)
= 1.586J
I am now confused as to how to get the velocities, because writing out the conservation of momentum equations leads to me running into two unknown variables; the speed of the putty after, and the speed of the cart after.
Would anyone mind helping me out further with this problem..