Kinetic Energy and Inelastic Collisions

The six situations below show mass (m) and velocity (v) information for two carts prior to a collision.  Assume all collisions are Inelastic and any motion to the right is considered positive.

Rank from the greatest to the least on the basis of total kinetic energy prior to the collision.


Greatest   1____  2_____  3_____  4_____  5_____ 6______ 7_____ 8_____Least

Or, the total kinetic energies are the same in each situation.   ________  

Please carefully explain your reasoning.

 
How sure were you of your ranking?  (circle one)
Basically Guessed Sure
Very Sure
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