Edexcel A2 Physics

Questions and answers

1.1.2 Collisions [QB]Questions 1 A movie stuntman with a mass of 90#kg stands on a stationary 1#kg skateboard. An actor shoots the stuntman with a 9#mm pistol. The 8-gram bullet leaves the pistol at 358#m#s1 and embeds completely in the stuntmans bulletproof vest. At what speed will the stuntman roll away? 2 A girl in a stationary boat on a still pond has lost her oars in the water. To get the boat moving again, she throws her rucksack horizontally out of the boat with a speed of 4#m#s1. Mass of boat = 60#kg; mass of girl = 40#kg; mass of rucksack = 5#kg. a b How fast will this action make the boat move? If she throws the rucksack by exerting a force on it for 0.2#s, how much force does she exert?

3 How can Newtons third law help to explain the problem suffered by the boy stepping out of the boat in Worked example 2 in the section Explosions? 4 In a stunt for an action movie, the 100#kg actor jumps from a train which is crossing a river bridge. On the river below, the heroine is tied to a raft floating towards a waterfall at 3#m#s1. The raft and heroine have a total mass of 200#kg. a If the hero times his jumps perfectly so as to land on the raft, and his velocity is 12#m#s1 at an angle of 80 to the river current, what will be the velocity of the raft immediately after he lands? Draw a vector diagram to show the momentum addition. (Ignore any vertical motion.) b If the waterfall is 100#m downstream, and the hero landed when the raft was 16#m from the bank, would they plummet over the fall? (Assume the velocity remains constant after the hero has landed.) 5 a Define linear momentum. The principle of conservation of linear momentum is a consequence of Newtons laws of motion. An examination candidate is asked to explain this, using a collision between two trolleys as an example. He gives the following answer, which is correct but incomplete. The lines of his answer are numbered on the left for reference. i ii During the collision the trolleys push each other. These forces are of the same size but in opposite directions.

iii As a result, the momentum of one trolley must increase at the same rate as the momentum of the other decreases. iv b c Therefore the total momentum of the two trolleys must remain constant. In which line of his argument is the candidate using Newtons second law? In which line is he using Newtons third law?

d The student is making one important assumption which he has not stated. State this assumption. Explain at what point it comes into the argument. e two trolleys. [/QB] Describe how you could check experimentally that momentum is conserved in a collision between

Edexcel A2 Physics
Questions and answers
[ST] Answers 1) 0.031 m s-1 2)a) 0.2 m s-1 b) 100 N 3) In order to move forward, the boy must experience a force from the boat. There is an equal and opposite force from him onto the boat which moves the boat backwards away from him. 4)a) [insert artwork as per below note that at the bottom right of this pic, all arrowheads meet which is why it looks a bit rubbish]

ptotal = 1430 kg m s-1 vafter = 4.77 m s-1 b) twaterfall = 37 s tbank = 4 s so they would land safely on the riverbank.
5) a) mass velocity [Words or defined symbols; NOT ft] b) iii c) ii, or i and ii.Line 2 OR 1& 2 d) No (net) external forces/no friction/drag. Line iii. (he assumes the force exerted by the other trolley is the resultant force) e) Suitable collision described and specific equipment to measure velocities [e.g. light gates]. Measure velocities before and after collision. Describes how velocities calculated [e.g. how light gates used]. Measure masses / use known masses/equal masses. Calculate initial and final moment a and compare OR for equal trolleys in inelastic collision.