Notes on Elementary Dynamics. III.: Collision

Extract

We have seen that for solving problems on the simultaneous impact of more than two bodies, we require in addition to the laws of Abstract Dynamics, not only a generalization of Newton’s Empirical Law as to change of relative velocity, but also the assumption that the impacts are simultaneous in the special sense of having their greatest compression at the same instant. In other words, it is only in a particular set of special cases that elementary methods can lead to a solution.