Fragments · Estonian PhO 2012 #10

Physics · mechanics

Problem

A clay ball of mass 10 g fell vertically down to a smooth horizontal ground and broke into three fragments. The fragments scattered on the ground and stopped at points that are given in the figure (top view, the cross represents the falling point). Find the masses of the fragments. You can make additional designs on the drawing (on a separate paper) and take additional measurements. You can assume that the fragments started to slide right after the fall without bouncing upwards, the air friction is insignificant and that the coefficient of kinetic friction does not depend on the speed. [image — see PDF]

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