Meteor Crater in Arizona is thought to have been formed by the impact of a meteo

Question

Meteor Crater in Arizona is thought to have been formed by the impact of a meteor with the Earth some 20 000 years ago. The mass of the meteor is estimated at 5.24E+10 kg, and its speed at 10.10 km/s. What speed would such a meteor give Earth in a head-on collision?

The described collision is inelastic because it requires work to pulverize the meteor. The energy to do this is supplied by some of the available initial mechanical energy (which is entirely kinetic in this case). Although the meteorite is pulverized, all of its mass stays with the earth after the collision. Consider, therefore, whether this mass forms part of the final mass after the collision.
The mass of the earth is 5.97×1024 kg.

Explanation / Answer

conserving momentum (M+m)v= mu v= mu/(M+m) v= 8.86 * 10 ^-11 m/s

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