9-10-2014 Impulse Momentum Theorem Lab #14

Purpose

The purpose of this lab is to figure out the change of momentum of an object. Instead of finding momentum directly we are going to find the impulse of an object in a collision, since we know that the change in momentum equals to impulse.

Momentum: p=m*v
Impulse: F=m*a

In this lab we had to create two different types of collisions, elastic and inelastic. The first one we had to carts one is stationary on a frictionless cart while the other is moving with a force sensor attached. There were two test for this one the first was with out weights while the second was with 0.5kg weights.

The next photo shows the graph of the elastic collision without weights. All of our data was collected through the force sensor into the LoggerPro program on the computer. With the velocity collected we have to multiply it to the mass of the carts in order to get our momentum. Then we would get the integral of the force vs time graph because that will be impulse. Once data is finished being analyzed we had to compare whether the momentum calculated and the impulse recorded is the same.

Then the next graph is of the elastic collision with the .5kg of mass.

After the elastic collisions were done we had to create an inelastic collision using the same track but with clay attached to a wooden stationary block in order for the colliding cart not to get stuck. The moving cart did not have any mass on top.

Here is how our graphed looked when our clay ran a spike through our clay body.

The graph is relatively the same compared to the elastic collision graphs. However, the elastic collision has a smaller impulse and change in momentum.