Throughout
this lab we were able to see the conservation of momentum and kinetic energy
during collisions. Performing different kinds of collisions allowed us to
classify them as elastic, inelastic, or completely inelastic. We were able to
do these things easily and successfully! We discovered that when we used
magnetic bumpers momentum and kinetic energy was conserved in the collision.
But when we changed the bumpers to Velcro, only momentum was conserved, not
kinetic energy. We could identify this because we would find the momentum or
the kinetic energy right before the two carts hit each other and then find it
again right after. This can be seen in the highlighted squares in my Data
Table. This data was taken from Graphs 1, 2, and 3. By dividing the two numbers
we got, we could see if the ratio was near one. If it was near one, that would
mean that they are really close to the same number and so it did conserve the
momentum or kinetic energy. Physics is evident throughout this lab because the
conservation of momentum and kinetic energy uses Physics formulas, such as
KE=.5mv^2 and p=mv. All in all this was a great, fun, and easy lab that taught
us so much! The only big errors I made were in the beginning; I was multiplying
the velocity by the mass in grams to give me the momentum when I needed the
kilograms. And one technical error of us setting up the lab was that we weren't
sure if our track was actually level in the center. It seemed like it was
dropping down a little bit. We tried to fix it the best we could by putting a
chair underneath for support.
