Question

The titanic hit an iceberg estimated to be half of her mass. Before hitting the iceberg, the Titanic was estimated to be going 22 kts (11.3 m/s). After hitting the iceberg, the Titanic was estimated to be going about 6.0 knots (3.1 m/s). How fast was the iceberg going after the collision? (Assume a head-on collision) (Hint: first find the momentum of the Titanic before the collision. Then write the expression for the total momentum after the collision, which is the sum of the momentum of the Titanic and the momentum of the iceberg. Make the expression equal to the momentum before and solve.)

Answer 1