Centre of Mass 3 Question 6
9. A piece of wood of mass is dropped from the top of a height building. At the same time, a bullet of mass is fired vertically upward with a velocity from the ground. The bullet gets embedded in the wood.
Then, the maximum height to which the combined system reaches above the top of the building before falling below is (Take,
(2019 Main, 10 Jan I)
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Show Answer
Answer:
Correct Answer: 9. (d)
Solution:
- Key Idea As bullet gets embedded in the block of wood so, it represents a collision which is perfectly inelastic and hence only momentum of the system is conserved.
Velocity of bullet is very high compared to velocity of wooden block so, in order to calculate time for collision, we take relative velocity nearly equal to velocity of bullet.
So, time taken for particles to collide is
Speed of block just before collision is;
Speed of bullet just before collision is
Let
Now, maximum height reached by bullet and block is
Now, distance covered by bullet before collision in
Distance of point of collision from the top of the building