Homework 1/14

i came up with Katelyn's mallet working the best. If Josh has an axe that he can swing at 12 m/s and it has a mass of 4kg, then it's initial momentum will be 48kg.m.s. If we assume that the zombie is 50 kg moving at a velocity of 1 m/s, then the zombie's momentum will be -50 kg.m.s. When on the bar chart, this leaves a -2 momentum that must be conserved. Seeing as the axe stops when it hits the zombie, then the final velocity of the axe is 0. the zombie slows to a -2 because momentum must be conserved. However, Katelyn's mallet can be swung with an initial momentum of 48, and the final momentum would be -48 because the mallet swings back at the same speed in the opposite direction. Since both josh and katelyn have the same zombie attacking them, the initial momentum of the zombie is again -50. Because momentum must be conserved and there is a -2 momentum that has to remain, the final momentum of the mallet is -48, which means the final momentum of the zombie is 46. Meaning katelyn's mallet works the best because she sent the zombie flying in the opposite direction.

the 3 things i learned today that you don't need to find the final momentum of the zombies to figure out the problems, because as long as you know initial and final of one thing, you know that the final has to equal the conserved momentum; that there's more to science than just straight facts and numbers, it's in the asumptions that real learning occurs, and i found that because of the way we were trying to figure the zombie problems and how up in arms everyone got about not being given numbers and the issues that they had "making" up numbers, however, that's where we really learned. The third thing i learned was that i need to be sure i have an array of weapons around me when zombies attack because i wont know their velocity or their mass so i have to be ready for everything.