Jeanette is playing in a 9-ball pool tournament. She will win if she sinks the 9-ball from the final rack, so she needs to line up her shot precisely. Both the cue ball and the 9-ball have mass m, and the cue ball is hit at an initial speed of v_i. Jeanette carefully hits the cue ball into the 9-ball off center, so that when the balls collide, they move away from each other at the same angle theta from the direction in which the cue ball was originally traveling. Furthermore, after the collision, the cue ball moves away at speed v_f, while the 9-ball moves at speed v_9
For the purposes of this problem, assume that the collision is perfectly elastic, neglect friction, and ignore the spinning of the balls..
Find the angle theta that the 9-ball travels away from the horizontal, as shown in the figure.
Jeanette is playing in a 9-ball pool tournament. She will win if she sinks the 9-ball from the final rack, so she needs to line up her shot precisely. Both the cue ball and the 9-ball have mass m, and the cue ball is hit at an initial speed of v_i. Jeanette carefully hits the cue ball into the 9-ball off center, so that when the balls collide, they move away from each other at the same angle theta from the direction in which the cue ball was originally traveling. Furthermore, after the collision, the cue ball moves away at speed v_f, while the 9-ball moves at speed v_9
For the purposes of this problem, assume that the collision is perfectly elastic, neglect friction, and ignore the spinning of the balls..
Find the angle theta that the 9-ball travels away from the horizontal, as shown in the figure.
