Conservation laws, such as conservation of momentum, often give a surprising amount of information about the possible outcome of an experiment. here is perhaps the simplest example:. Two objects of masses m1 and m2 are subject to no external forces.
Object 1 is traveling with velocity v when it collides with the stationary object 2.
The two objects stick together and move off with common velocity v`.
Use conservation of momentum to find v` in terms of v, m1, and m2.