At first sight, it may seem that all the information necessary to “reconstruct” the function \(U(x_1−x_2)\) is available already, at least in graphical form: From Figure 4.3.1 you could get the value ...At first sight, it may seem that all the information necessary to “reconstruct” the function \(U(x_1−x_2)\) is available already, at least in graphical form: From Figure 4.3.1 you could get the value of \(x_2 − x_1\) at any time \(t\); then from Figure 8.5.1 you can get the value of \(K\) (in the elastic-collision scenario) for the same value of \(t\); and then you could plot \(U = E − K\) (where \(E\) is the total energy) as a function of \(x_2 − x_1\).
