A massless elastic cord (that obeys Hooke's law) will break

Last updated: 7/10/2022

A massless elastic cord (that obeys Hooke's law) will break if the tension in the cord exceeds Tmax. One end of the cord is attached to a fixed point, the other is attached to an object of mass 3m as shown in the figure. If a second, smaller object of mass m moving at an initial speed Vo strikes the larger mass and the two stick together, the cord will stretch and break, but the final kinetic energy of the two masses will be zero. If instead the two collide with a perfectly elastic one dimensional collision, the cord will still break and the larger max. will move off with final speed of v₁. All motion occurs on a horizontal frictionless surface. (assume the Hooke's law is obeyed throughout until the cord breaks) m 3m Find the ratio of the total kinetic energy of the system of two masses after the perfectly elastic collision and the cord has broken to the initial kinetic energy of the smaller mass prior to the collison