Diagrammatic Approach for Investigating Two Dimensional Elastic Collisions in Momentum Space I: Newtonian Mechanics

Abstract

We present the usefulness of the diagrammatic approach for analyzing two dimensional elastic collision in momentum space. In the mechanics course, we have two major purposes of studying the collision problems. One is that we have to obtain velocities of the two particles after the collision from initial velocities by using conservation laws of momentum and energy. The other is that we have to study two ways of looking collisions, i.e. laboratory system and center-of-mass system. For those two major purposes, we propose the diagrammatic technique. We draw two circles. One is for the center-of-mass system and the other is for the laboratory system. Drawing these two circles accomplish two major purposes. This diagrammatic technique can help us understand the collision problems quantitatively and qualitatively.