Question

What is the momentum of a bowling ball and putty together after a 1-kg chunk of putty moving at 1 m/s collides with and sticks to a 5-kg bowling ball initially at rest?

Answer 1

This is known as a perfectly inelastic collision

Explanation:

The key to this is understanding that momentum will be conserved and that the final mass of the object will be `m_1+m_2`

So, your initial momentum is `m_1*v_1+m_2*v_2`, but since the 5kg bowling ball is initially at rest, the only momentum in the system is 1kg*1m/s = 1 Ns (Newton-second)

Then, after the collision, since that momentum is conserved,
`1 Ns = (m_1+m_2)v'` v' means the new velocity

So `1 Ns = (1kg+5kg)v'->{1Ns}/{6kg}=v'=0.16m/s`