| ANGLE
OF DEFLECTION
Due to the density of the balls, the collisions between them are
elastic. That is, momentum is conserved, opposed to an inelastic
collision, where this is not the case (e.g. clay ball thrown at
door). Because all of the balls have the same mass, that angle made
by the balls after the collision is approximately 90 deg. This occurs
because the sum of the momentum of the balls after the collision
is equal to the momentum of the moving ball before the collision.
The equation that was used in this case is:
P1i + P2i = P1f +
P2f
where we understand that the vector of P1i is equal to the vector
sum of P1f + P2f
and P2i = 0 because the ball was not moving before
the collision.
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