Impulse Lab

Purpose: The purpose of the Impulse Lab was to use the red car to crash into the force- probe attached to the ring stand to record the velocity before and after the collision. After getting the velocities, we needed to record the area under the force vs. time graph to get our impulse which is the momentum after - momentum before.

Big Question: What is the relationship between impulse, force, and time during a collision?
The relationship between impulse, force, and time during a collision is that the amount of force can change depending on the time which can affect the momentum. The momentum before and after are needed to get the impulse.

 Data/ Whiteboard 

 

This is a picture of another groups whiteboard which shows their velocity before and after for the collision. The area is also included. The equation Pafter-Pbefore was used to get the impulse for the lab. 

 Connection to Real Life:

The Impulse lab connects to our real life because what we are learning about is similar to when you kick a ball towards a wall since force and time is involved which also is necessary to get momentum. These are all factors that are covered in the lab to find the impulse.

 

Collisions Lab

Purpose: The purpose of the Collision lab was to find out the speed(v) of the cars that were in the collision. We calculated the momentum and total energy before and after for the inelastic and elastic collisions. 

Big Question: 

What is the difference between the amount of energy lost

in an Elastic Collision vs Inelastic Collision?

The difference between the amount of energy lost in an Elastic collision vs. Inelastic collision is that in one of the collision, the amount of energy before and after had a much larger drop. 

What is a better conserved quantity - momentum or energy?

The momentum is better conserved since the energy will always be changing. 

Whiteboard/ Data 

 

Whiteboard shows my group's calculations for the total momentum and energy before and after also including the % difference.

This is the calculations that my group used to get the calculations for the whiteboard. 

Real Life Connection:  Two baseball players colliding at home plate is how this lab connects to real life. The person that falls back depends on the speed of the person running and the mass. The catcher was not moving so the other person had more speed which is why the catcher is falling backwards.