The central elastic and inelastic collisions have been analyzed in general vector form. The proposed analysis results in equations, which have simple physical interpretation and can be easily applied to different special cases. The mathematical basis needed for the analysis includes only vector addition and dot-product of vectors. It allows teachers to introduce proposed approach to collisions already in trigonometry-based physic courses.
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© 1998 American Association of Physics Teachers.
1998
American Association of Physics Teachers
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