Assign values to make the problem more specific.
Suppose you have two oversize hockey pucks: one is lead (7 kg) the other is aluminum (1 kg).
They both have Teflon bottoms (or sandpaper or something in between), so the coefficient of friction is the same.
They have springs on their rims.
You push them together, compressing the springs, and let them go.
The heavy one has an initial velocity of 1 ms (this is arbitrary), and comes to rest 5.60 meters away.
In this case, you should be able to find everything: the initial momentum, velocity, energy, and distance traveled
of both pucks, and the coefficient of friction.
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by: PaulHewsPosted on 2009-11-05 at 14:26:48ID: 25754783
Explosion into two parts: You can use conservation of momentum to find unknown velocity for given mass. But you don't have any *known* velocity for the 7mass.
What you do know is that 7mass does work (that you can calculate) against the opposing force of friction... Work back from that to find initial velocity since that kinetic energy is transformed into work... That should suggest what you have to do in the other direction.