Analyzing collisions in classical mechanics using mass–momentum diagrams

Abstract

We show the value of mass–momentum diagrams for analyzing collision problems in classical mechanics in one dimension. Collisions are characterized by the coefficient of restitution and the momenta of the interacting particles both before and after the collision. All those quantities are presented in the mass–momentum diagrams without the need to do any calculations. We also show that the same diagrams can be used to investigate collisions with respect to the center-of-mass system. In this case, also, we do not need to do any calculations to obtain the momentum. Since we give an alternative way of looking at collisions in classical mechanics, this article is aimed at undergraduate-level students.