A piece of putty moving with 1 unit of momentum strikes and sticks to a heavy bowling ball that is initially at rest.After the putty sticks to the ball,both move with a combined momentum of

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

According to the law of conservation of momentum, the total momentum of an isolated system remains constant. Since the bowling ball was at rest before the collision, the initial momentum of the system was 1 unit. After the putty sticks to the ball, the combined mass increases, but the velocity decreases so that the momentum remains constant. Therefore, the combined momentum after the collision is still 1 unit.

A Piece of Putty Moving with 1 Unit of Momentum