To protect their young in the nest, peregrine falcons will fly into birds of pre

Question

To protect their young in the nest, peregrine falcons will fly into birds of prey (such as ravens) at high speed. In one such episode, a 600 g falcon flying at 20.0 m/s ran into a 1.50 kg raven flying at 9.00 m/s . The falcon hit the raven at a right angle to its original path and bounced back with a speed of 5.00 m/s .

A)Despite being only about one-third the mass of the raven, the falcon successfully diverts the raven's direction of motion by a relatively large angle. This is because of the initial high speed of the falcon. In fact, by what angle would the falcon change the raven's direction of motion if it were to hit the raven at a lower speed, for example at a speed equal to the raven's initial speed? Assume that the raven has the same final speed as above and the falcon has the same final velocity as given in the introduction.

Explanation / Answer

In the falcon's direction of motion,
600g * 20.0m/s = 600g * -5.0m/s + 1500g * v
v = 6 m/s

Relative to the raven's original direction, then,
= arctan(6/9.0) = arctan(0.66666)= 33.7º

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