<h2>Summary</h2>
<ul>
<li>The approach to two-dimensional collisions is to choose a convenient coordinate system and break the motion into components along perpendicular axes. Choose a coordinate system with the \(x\)-axis parallel to the velocity of the incoming particle.</li>
<li>Two-dimensional collisions of point masses where mass 2 is initially at rest conserve momentum along the initial direction of mass 1 (the \(x\)-axis), stated by \({m}_{1}{v}_{1}={m}_{1}{v\prime }_{1}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}\text{cos}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}{\theta }_{1}+{m}_{2}{v\prime }_{2}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}\text{cos}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}{\theta }_{2}\) and along the direction perpendicular to the initial direction (the \(y\)-axis) stated by \(0={m}_{1}{v\prime }_{1y}+{m}_{2}{v\prime }_{2y}\).</li>
<li>The internal kinetic before and after the collision of two objects that have equal masses is

<div>\(\frac{1}{2}{{\text{mv}}_{1}}^{2}=\frac{1}{2}{{\text{mv}\prime }_{1}}^{2}+\frac{1}{2}{{\text{mv}\prime }_{2}}^{2}+{\text{mv}\prime }_{1}{v\prime }_{2}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}\text{cos}\left({\theta }_{1}-{\theta }_{2}\right).\)</div>
</li>
<li>Point masses are structureless particles that cannot spin.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Glossary</h2>
<h3>point masses</h3>
<p>structureless particles with no rotation or spin</p>
<section data-element-type="conceptual-questions"></section>

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Summarizing Collisions of Point Masses in Two Dimensions

Physics is a science discipline concerned with the nature and properties of matter and energy. Physics topics include mechanics, heat, light and radiation, sound, electricity, magnetism, the structure of atoms, and so on.

Physics

Learn how objects in motion can have linear momentum and how collisions between objects can change their momentum in this tutorial.


Summarizing Collisions of Point Masses in Two Dimensions

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