Abstract:
The purpose of this lab was to understand momentum and energy and how they are related in the event of a collision. This experiment played around with that and different mass on carts was projected to elastic and inelastic collisions. One cart would be stationary while another was plunged towards it or they were both moving. As a result the elastics final kinetic energy was pretty much equal to the initial kinetic energy. In the inelastic case the final kinetic energy is normally less than the initial kinetic energy.
Introduction:
There were two main goals when performing this experiment. This first goal being to accurately demonstrate linear momentum conservation for collisions and classify whether they are elastic or inelastic. The second goal was to measure the energy loss in inelastic collisions. During this experiment we measured initial and final velocities, momentum, change in momentum, initial and final kinetic energies, and change in kinetic energies. The change in kinetic energies was what distinguished whether it was an inelastic or elastic collision.
Theory and Derivations:
The velocities of two carts were measured as a function of time. Two carts were attached to rotary motion sensors …show more content…
After these momentums were calculated the kinetic energies of both initial and final were calculated. For example trial one for the elastic collisions the three initial velocities of mass 1 recorded were P1 in = (0.68+0.704 + 0.665 m/s)/3(1) = 0.68. KEin= (1/2)(1)(0.68) = 0.23. P1 and P2 finals were calculated the same way as P1 initial was. The change in momentum was calculated by (0.68-(0.66 +0.56)) = 0.55. KEf = (1/2)(1)(0.66)+(1/2)(1)(.56) = 0.16. The change in KE is those two calculation subtracted from each other. These same calculations were asked the be calculated in all parts of the