14-10-2014 Two Dimensional Collision Lab #15

Purpose

The purpose of this lab is to show a two dimensional collision and use it to get our change in momentum and loss of kinetic energy. By doing this we will be able to tell if the system is conserved.

We accomplish this by colliding two balls that are the same (marbles) and two that are different (steel and aluminum) and recording a video of it on a flat surface.

With these videos we recorded on LoggerPro we have to follow the motion of the ball by creating dots throughout along with a measurement to make sure the program has everything to scale. For the video we had to make sure the balls collided at an angle and not in a line or else this would not work.

This one is the collision of the steel and aluminum ball.












This collision is of the two marbles that are the same.












These dots are plotted on a graph that will measure the position versus time of each video. The first graph is for the steel and the aluminum while the second is for the marbles. Along with the paths we got there best fit lines.

After these were plotted we used the velocities to graph the Kinetic Energy, Momentum of X and the Momentum of Y. The top one representing the steel and aluminum balls while the bottom is the two marbles.

Since our graphs are not entirely uniform we cannot tell if the actual collision is conserved for energy but for the momentum we can see that it is conserved.