From: hal@finney.org
Date: Sat Feb 23 2002 - 11:13:10 MST
John Clark writes:
> ...but regardless of the weight of either car there is no way
> the second car can end up moving faster than the first after a collision.
Consider an elastic collision between a car going 10 mph and a stationary
ping-pong ball. Obviously this will not slow the car down at all.
Look at it in the car's frame of reference, and you have a ping pong
ball coming in towards the front of the car at 10 mph, bouncing off the
car and leaving at 10 mph in the forward direction. In the stationary
frame the ping pong ball will be going 10 mph faster than the car, a
net speed of 20 mph.
Hal
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