College Physics with MasteringPhysics 7th Edition by Jerry Wilson,Anthony Buffa,Bo Lou

Exercise 30

For the apparatus in Fig. 6.15, one ball swinging in at a speed of 2 v o will not cause two balls to swing out with speeds v o. (a) Which law of physics precludes this situation from happening: the law of conservation of momentum or the law of conservation of mechanical energy (b) Prove this law mathematically.