Two lonely soccer balls in outer space feel nothing but their mutual attraction. In the beginning they have a distance of 20 km and a mass of 440 g with a diameter of 22 cm. What is each ball’s momentum just before they collide as potential energy is converted into kinetic energy? How large are the accelerations of the balls when they start moving and just before they collide? Find the acceleration as a function of distance a(r). Compute the times they would travel before they collide according to the initial and final accelerations. How large are the balls’ velocities just after the collision if the collision was elastic and if the collision was (fully) inelastic? Γ = 6.67 ∙ 10^−11 m^3 /kg∙s^2

Two lonely soccer balls in outer space feel nothing but their mutual attraction. In the beginning they have a distance of 20 km and a mass of 440 g with a diameter of 22 cm. What is each ball’s momentum just before they collide as potential energy is converted into kinetic energy? How large are the accelerations of the balls when they start moving and just before they collide? Find the acceleration as a function of distance a(r). Compute the times they would travel before they collide according to the initial and final accelerations. How large are the balls’ velocities just after the collision if the collision was elastic and if the collision was (fully) inelastic? Γ = 6.67 ∙ 10^−11 m^3 /kg∙s^2