Question

You have two carts, a force probe connected to a computer, a motion detector, and an assortment of objects of different masses. Design three experiments to test whether momentum is a conserved quantity. Describe carefully what data you will collect and how you will analyze the data.

Answer 1

Now,

Make sure that one side of both the carts have magnet (not so strong) one side so that when they collide they don't get stuck with one another. and other side of cart has some adhesive kind of thing so that when they collide, they get stuck and go together.

Experiments that can be performed are

1) For Elastic collisions

a) Align the carts on the track such that magnet side of both the cart face each other.

b) Put target cart in the middle, and place the other cart at some distance. Turn on all the motion detectors.

c) Launch one cart towards the other one and collect the data.

d) Perform this experiment with different initial speed and different masses.

2) For inelastic collisions

a) Align the carts on the track such that adhesive side of both the cart face each other.

b) Put target cart in the middle, and place the other cart at some distance. Turn on all the motion detectors.

c) Launch one cart towards the other one aso that they stick smoothly and move together. collect the data.

d) Perform this experiment with different initial speed and different masses.

3) Explotion

a) Set both the cart in the center such that they are touching each other on the plunger system.

b) Release the plunger and collect the data

c) Perform this experiment with different initial speed and different masses.

Now,

Data to be collected in all the experiments are

1) Speed of objects before collision with one another.

2) Speed of objects after the collision

3) Mass of the different objects.

4) Path or direction of the motion of different objects.

5) Total Momentum of carts before collision and after collosion

6) Total Momentum of system before collision and after collosion

Compare the momentum of the system before and after the collision or explotion.

Calculate the errors.