ASTR 498N             Homework #5       due in class Tu 16 Apr  

              

R   Please review O&C §5.4 and §10.3 and read §13.1.

 

P   O&C Problems 10.7, 10.9, 10.10, 10.11, 10.15, 10.16

 

P   Consider two particles of masses m₁ and m₂ and nonrelativistic velocities v₁ and v₂.  The two particles have relative velocity  and relative speed .  Show that the kinetic energy of the system can be written as

 

                     

 

where V is the velocity of the center of mass and μ is the reduced mass (O&C Eq. 2.23).  The first term represents the kinetic energy of the center of mass.  The second term is the portion of the total kinetic energy available for doing work against any force separating the two particles.