Introduction:

The purpose of this lab is to analyze the law of conservation of momentum and kinetic energy for different collisions between masses on a frictionless track in one dimension. For a single particle, momentum is defined as the product of the mass and the velocity: P = mv KE = KE1 + KE2 On the other hand, kinetic energy is the sum of the individual kinetic energies of each particle. In this experiment we deal with two different kinds of collisions, elastic and inelastic. In an elastic collision, two or more bodies come together, collide, and then move apart again with no loss in total kinetic energy. In an inelastic collision, the bodies collide and come apart again, but some kinetic energy is lost. The change in kinetic energy in relation with the elastic collision will be observed.

Procedure:
The first part of the lab is performing an inelastic collision. Here two gliders will collide and stick together. Obtain 2 gliders and record their weights. Place the 1st glider close to the motion detector and attach a pin to it, and on the 2nd glider attach a tube so that the pin will stick to it when the two objects collide. Adjust the air supply on the vane so that the two glide smoothly on the surface. Open up Logger Pro so that once the experiment begins, it will record the velocities of the two objects. The glider with the pin will be the moving glider, and the glider on the other side will remain still (velocity =0.) Hit collect on Logger Pro, and give the Moving Glider a small push towards the Target Glider. Record the initial and final velocities of the gliders. Next, add a 0.1kg weight to the Moving Glider and perform the experiment again, keeping the Target Glider as it was with a velocity of zero. Once that is complete, move the 0.1kg weight over to the Target Glider and perform the collision once more, recording the initial and final velocities. The second part of the lab is to perform an elastic collision, where the two masses will collide and not stick together. Remove the pin and metal piece from the gliders and attach a blade with rubber bands at the ends to each glider. This will stop the two objects from attaching. Hit collect on Logger Pro, and give both gliders a slight push towards each other, the motion detector will detect this initial velocity of the gliders. Once the two objects collide, they bounce off each
Page 1

other in the opposite direction and the motion detector read a final velocity for each. Record these values. Next, attach a 0.1kg weight to the Target Glider and perform the experiment once more, given each glider a slight initial velocity so that they hit each other and bounce in the opposite direction with a final velocity.

Results:
Moving Glider Target Glider Mass 0.19kg 0.19kg Table 1: Inelastic Collision 1 V (before) V (after) 0.779m/s 0.353m/s 0m/s 0.353m/s Table 2: Inelastic Collision 2 V (before( V (after) 0.646m/s 0.483m/s 0m/s 0.483m/s (mv) -0.16188 0.13414

Moving Glider with weight Target Glider

Mass 0.29kg 0.19kg

(mv) -0.06194 0.18354

Moving Glider Target Glider with weight

Mass 0.19kg 0.29kg

Table 3: Inelastic Collision 3 V (before) V (after) 0.441m/s 0.316m/s 0m/s 0.316m/s

(mv) -0.0475 0.12008

Moving Glider Target Glider

Mass 0.19kg 0.19kg

Table 4: Elastic Collision 1 V (before) V (after) 0.862m/s 0.905m/s 0.779m/s 0.725m/s Table 5: Elastic Collision 2 V (before) V (after) 0.766m/s 0.808m/s 0.395m/s 0.933m/s

(mv) 0.00817 -0.01026

Moving Glider Target Glider with weight

Mass 0.19kg 0.29kg

(mv) 0.00798 0.15602

Table 6: % Kinetic Energy Loss Collision # 1 2 Ek Moving Glider-before 0.05765 0.060511 Ek Target Glider-before 0 0 Ek Moving Glider-after 0.023676 0.055989 Ek Target Glider-after 0.023676 0.055989 % Change 58.93% decrease 7.47% decrease

Page 2

3 4 5

0.01847 0.070589 0.07277

0 0.05765 0.037446

0.023965 0.077807 0.156687

0.023965 0.049934 0.208917

29.75% increase .388% decrease .204% increase

Discussion:
In this lab, two types of collisions were observed: elastic and inelastic. In each of the five collisions, the momentum was calculated using the equation p=mv. It is clear from the tables above that as the weight on the carts increased, so did the momentum. This conclusion coincides with the equation of momentum, which states that mass and momentum are directly proportional to each other. On the other hand, it can be seen that when the weight was added, the final velocity of the carts decreased. This also agrees with the p=mv equation. If the equation is rearranged, it would become m=p/v which means that the mass and velocity are inversely proportional to each other, which agrees with this experiments results. Another aspect that was observed was the conservation of kinetic energy. The laws of physics dictate that in an elastic collision, kinetic energy is conserved and in inelastic collisions, kinetic energy is not conserved. Examining the data, it can be seen that this is true. When looking at the percent change in Table 6, its clear that in the first three collisions (inelastic), energy was not conserved at all. However, in the last two collisions (elastic), the percent change was extremely close to 0. In a perfect world, the percent change of the last two trials would be 0 but due to human error, this is not the case. In this experiment, some human errors that are possible are that the surface was the completely frictionless, therefore adding an extra force to the gliders and another error could be that the masses of the two gliders are not exactly equal (which is what was assumed).

Page 3