Baseball runner with a mass of 70kg, moving at 2.7m/s and collides head-on into a shortstop with a mass of 85kg and a velocity of 1.6m/s. What will be the resultant velocity of the system when they make contact with each other

The speed of the combined mass after the collision is 2.1 m/s.

Explanation:

mass of runner, m = 70 kg

speed  of runner, u = 2.7 m/s

mass of shortstop, m' = 85 kg

speed  of shortstop, u' = 1.6 m/s

Let the velocity of combined system is v.

Use conservation of momentum

Momentum before collision = momentum after collision

m u + m' u' = (m + m') v

70 x 2.7 + 85 x 1.6 = (70 + 85) v

189 + 136 = 155 v

v = 2.1 m/s

force tends to be low and long diustance masses are high