Calculate Impact Energy

Impact is another word for kinetic energy. Here, the energy at an impact of a mass with a velocity can be compared to another mass and velocity. The larger one of these two values ​​is, the smaller the other value is in proportion if the impact is to remain the same. A comparison with a weight or mass at rest is not possible, however, because this would have a value of zero due to the lack of speed. The units of both masses and velocities are equal, e.g. kg and km/h.

m₁ * v₁² = m₂ * v₂²

Example: a mass of 30 kilograms, impacting with 100 kilometers per hour, has the same kinetic energy than a mass of 3 metric tons, impacting with 10 kilometers per hour.

Another example: a 170 gram billiard ball hits a 160 gram billiard ball. The first ball slows down from 6.3 to 2.8 meters per second, thus losing 3.5 meters per second in speed, which is passed on to the other ball, which will continue to move at 3.6 meters per second due to its slightly lower mass.

Impact is a colloquial term for momentum, the calculation for these two quantities is mass multiplied by velocity. Here the two calculators differ in that with impact the mass and speed of one object are equated with the mass and speed of the other object, whereas with the linked calculator the quantity momentum is calculated from the mass and speed of an object.