Preliminary Questions
1. Consider a head-on collision between two identical billiard balls. Ball 1 is
initially in motion toward ball 2, which is initially at rest. After the collision,
ball 2 departs with the same velocity that ball 1 originally had. Disregard any
friction between the balls and the surface. What happens to ball 1? What
happens to ball 2? – ball 1 hits ball 2 and comes to a stop, ball 2 continues
moving
2. Sketch a position vs. time graph for each ball in Preliminary Question 1,
starting with the time before the collision starts and ending a short time after
the collision. – see picture
3. Based on your graph from Preliminary Question 2, is momentum conserved in
this collision? Is kinetic energy conserved?
- momentum is conserved, but kinetic energy is not
ANALYSIS
1. For each run, determine the momentum (mv) of each cart before the
collision, after the collision, and the total momentum before and after the
collision. Calculate the ratio of the total momentum after the collision to the
total momentum before the collision. Enter the values in Table 3. – see table
3
1 2
2. For each run, determine the kinetic energy ( KE = mv ) for each cart before
and after the 2
collision. Calculate the ratio of the total kinetic energy after the collision to
the total kinetic energy before the collision. Enter the values in Table 4. – see
table 4
3. If the total momentum for a system is the same before and after the collision,
we say that momentum is conserved. If momentum were conserved, what
would be the ratio of the total momentum after the collision to the total
momentum before the collision? - If momentum were conserved, the ratio of
the total momentum after the collision to the total momentum before the
collision would be 1
4. If the total kinetic energy for a system is the same before and after the
collision, we say that kinetic energy is conserved. If kinetic energy were
conserved, what would be the ratio of the total kinetic energy after the
collision to the total kinetic energy before the collision? - If kinetic energy
were conserved, the ratio of the total K.E after the collision to the total
momentum before the collision would be 1
5. Inspect the momentum ratios in Table 3. Even if momentum is conserved for
a given collision, the measured values may not be the same before and after
due to measurement uncertainty. The ratio should be close to one, however.
Is momentum conserved in your collisions? Yes, it is because the
measurements are close to 1 and the small skew from 1 is given to
measurement inaccuracies.
6. Repeat the preceding question for the case of kinetic energy, using the
kinetic energy ratios in Table 4. Is kinetic energy conserved in the magnetic
bumper collisions? How about the hook-and-pile collisions? Is kinetic energy
consumed in the third type of collision studies? Classify the three collision
types as elastic, inelastic, or completely inelastic. – kinetic energy is not
conserved; it is lost and the value for the kinetic energy less than one which
means that for all these collisions they are inelastic conditions. When a
collision is elastic KE is conserved and it ends up being close to one. When
objects a completely inelastic objects will stop attracting together and kineic
enegy is lost and kinetic energy values will be less than one.
7. You may have learned that for elastic collisions, "approach speed" equals
"separation speed." Check this by completing Table 5. – see table
8. If the last column in Table 5 contained a ratio greater than 1.0, it would imply
that the combined kinetic energies of the carts had increased! What is the
maximum value you found?- the maximum vale us 0.47 and the minimum
value was 0.13
TABLES