In a collision, do the two colliding objects have different acceleration values?

Answer 1

In general, yes, they do have different acceleration values.

Study of the 2 objects must both be done with the same reference system. Therefore the acceleration of one would be positive and the other would be negative. But perhaps it could be said that it should be obvious that the question really meant magnitude of acceleration.

By the principle of conservation, they have equal (but opposite) change in momentum. If they have equal mass, the velocity change of each would be equal (but opposite). The times of contact for both would be equal. So in the case of equal mass, acceleration would be equal (but opposite).

If the masses are different, they would have different acceleration values.

I hope this helps, Steve

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Answer 2

Adrian Ayala

In a collision, the two colliding objects may have different acceleration values depending on their masses and the forces involved in the collision.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.