Aparticle moving at 10 m/s along the x-axis collides elastically with another particle moving at 5.0 m/s in the same direction along the x-axis. the particles have equal masses. what are their speeds after the collision? can someone explain this in the simplest way possible?

Explanation:

It is given that,

Velocity of particle 1, u₁ = 10 m/s

Velocity of particle 2, u₂ = 5 m/s

Let v₁ and v₂ are the final speed of both particles after the collision. Applying the conservation of momentum as :

......................(1)

For an elastic collision, the coefficient of restitution is equal to 1 as :

................(2)

On solving equation (1) and (2), we get,

So, the speeds of particle 1 and particle 2 after the collision is 5 m/s and 10 m/s respectively. Hence, this is the required solution.