Impulse Lab

BIG QUESTION:
What is the relationship between impulse, force, and time in a collision?

 Newton once claimed that  " For every force there is an equal opposite of force."

Lab:

In this lab we made a collision between a sonic probe and a cart, both with an aluminum ring attached to help us see how time manipulates force.

After we collected our data we found out that the change in both force and momentum( Impulse)  were relatively close. We got this by finding the change in momentum and also by finding the area of a force x time graph. As you can see in the picture below J ( impulse) =-.319 is pretty close the area of the graph T(F)= -.3768.

Because these two are really close ato being the same data this means that a force x times graph  represents the impulse .

The next part of our lab we observed a collision between two carts, one weighing more than the other ( blue cart weighing more) . We later found out that these two carts both bent the same amount even though one cart( the blue cart) weighed more. Now you can conclude that  NO MATTER WHAT THE MASS THERE IS AN EQUAL  AND OPPOSITE FORCE.  

Recently Asked Questions:

Why does the red cart fly back farther than the blue cart?

• The red cart flies back due fact that the blue cart has a bigger mass which means there will be a bigger difference in momentum between the red and blue cart.
• The aluminum rings doesn't affect why the red cart flies back because it doesn't change and it will have the same amount of force as the blue cart

Why do both the aluminum rings bend the same amount?

• They bend the same amount because the only thing that changed was the mass which doesn't affect the force or time in this situation

Real Life Connection

Rock climbing is the best way to think about an impulse lab for me. In rock climbing when a climber comes down a cliff, they use a rope to help INCREASE the amount of stopping time  and DECREASE the amount of force. This is a really big deal to climbers because if they couldn't increase the amount of stopping time then the force could be great enough to kill them. I think climbers really appreciate physics every time the choose to go climb.

Collisions Lab

Big Questions:
1. What is the difference between the amount of energy lost in an Elastic vs. Inelastic collision?
2. What is a better conserved quantity? Momentum or energy?


In this week's lab, our main goal was to try and find out whether momentum or energy is better conserved and why. We started this lab by doing an elastic and inelastic collision to see how momentum and kinetic energy changed.   

First we did an inelastic collision. An inelastic collision is when one object collides with another and they both travel in the same direction. After we performed an elastic collision. An elastic collision is when to objects collide and they both travel in two separate directions. During both these collisions we used a sonic range finder that measures sound so we could find the velocity before and after the collision.

Once we collected all our data, we then figured out the percent difference which is the change in energy or momentum. Looking at the percent differences of both inelastic and elastic collisions, made us realize that momentum has a lower percent difference, meaning that momentum is better conserved during any collision no matter elastic or inelastic.

Inelastic Collision's Percent Difference

Elastic Collision's Percent Difference

Real World Connection
 A good real life connection would be golf. Golf is a well known sport and is watched by tons of people around the world. This would be a great example for an elastic collision. During golf the golf club hits a golf ball, energy is then transfered from golf club to the ball. In the process though the ball loses some energy due to factors such as wind.

Rubber Band Cart Launcher

BIG QUESTION:
-How are energy and velocity related?



Two weeks ago we found out the relationship between mass, height, and gravity, to derive an equation using them, and find different way of finding potential energy in order to find velocity.  We continued to use  elastic potential energy in our lab while we tried to find the velocity of the red cart. We found this by launching the cart through a photo gate sensor and by doing a series of  trials,  for the most accurate data. We used a program called Graphical Analysis to create a graph that best represented our data.
From this lab I learned that velocity and energy are directly proportional, which means if you increase velocity you also increase the energy. I also learned that energy is conserved throughout the system which means it stays the same. The energy is just transferred from elastic potential energy to kinetic energy. In this lab we derived the equation K=1/2(m)(v)^2. which helps describes how energy and velocity are directly proportional.

Real Life Connection:
     A connection I can make to the real world would be a sling shot. When using a sling shot you are pulling back on an object with a rubber band( Elastic potential energy) and the farther you pull it back the more energy it gains. Then when you release the object the energy from the rubber band is transferring into velocity but not losing any energy. Kinetic energy is just replacing the elastic potential energy.