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

Exercise 97

A new crowd control method utilizes "rubber" bullets instead of real ones. Suppose that, in a test, one of these "bullets" with a mass of 500 g is traveling at 250 m/s to the right. It hits a stationary target head-on. The target's mass is 25.0 kg and it rests on a smooth surface. The bullet bounces backward (to the left) off the target at 100 m/s. (a) Which way must the target move after the collision: (1) right, (2) left, (3) it could be stationary, or (4) you can't tell from the data given (b) Determine the recoil speed of the target after the collision.