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Newton’s ‘experimental’ law of impacts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

Ian Cook
Ian Cook*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ
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Extract

For many years candidates (and teachers) involved in A-level work have quoted Newton’s experimental law of restitution as one of the principles enabling collision problems to be solved. It had always seemed to me that it is fortunate that such a simple law holds and also that it is a great pity that there is no simple relationship between the initial and final kinetic energies. Recently, however, I realised that, viewed in terms of invariance, the law is not at all surprising and also that there is a very simple way of dealing with the loss of kinetic energy.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 70 , Issue 452 , June 1986 , pp. 107 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © Mathematical Association 1986

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References

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