Students in Mr. Thornton's classroom are testing the affects of unbalanced forces on objects and the resulting motion of the objects when they collide. The students use an air track with no friction. At the left
end of the track, the students accelerate a 0.5 kg mass object at a rate of 2.0 m/s2 for one second
towards the center of the track. At the right end of the track, the students accelerate a 1 kg mass object
at a rate of 1.0 m/s2 for one second towards the center of the track. When the two objects collide at the
center of the track, which way will the objects move?

Visualize the problem and identify special cases first examine the problem by drawing a picture and visualizing the motion. apply newton's 2nd law, ∑f⃗ =ma⃗ , to each body in your mind. don't worry about which quantities are given. think about the forces on each body: how are these consistent with the direction of the acceleration for that body? can you think of any special cases that you can solve quickly now and use to test your understanding later? one special case in this problem is if m2=0, in which case block 1 would simply fall freely under the acceleration of gravity: a⃗ 1=−gj^.