Originally Posted By: paul

the 100 kg mass has an acceleration of 0.8 m/s/s

if we only use the mass x the rate of acceleration of the mass to calculate the impact force of the collision we get

f=ma
force N = 100 kg x 0.8 m/s/s
80N

That's correct, as long as it's accelerating at 0.8m/s^2 _during the collision_. However it's not necessarily doing that in our pipe.




Paul, you have to include units in calculations, otherwise the results are automatically wrong no matter what names you call things. Eg:

2kg * 5s = 10kg.s.
It can never equal 10 kg.m or 10 N/foot or anything which isn't equal to 10 kg.s.

2 jabdabs * 5 yibyobs = 10 jabdab yibyobs.

2kg * 5m/s = 10 kg.m/s.
It can never equal 10 kg.m/s/s or 10N or 10dynes or anything that isn't equal to 10kgm/s. It does however equal 10Ns because 1Ns = 1 kgm/s.


Last edited by kallog; 09/22/11 01:16 AM.