15-Oct.-14: Conservation of Momentum in Two Dimensions

Purpose: To verify that momentum is conserved in two dimensions with a marble collision system, using a steel-to-steel ball collision and a steel-to-marble ball collision.



Apparatus:

  






Equipment -

Two small steel balls, each with mass 67.1-g
A non-steel ball, like a marble, with mass 60.3-g
The glass surface (pictured above) with a camera secured above the surface to capture the collision trajectories.



Experiment:

The experiment began by setting a steel ball near the center of the glass table.
We then rolled a second ball toward the resting steel ball in the center so that the two object would collide.
For the first part of the experiment we collided two steal balls -
for the second part, we collided a steal ball with a marble ball.

We then used the video capture with logger pro to track the position of both balls.
By tracking the position of the balls with logger pro we can calculate the initial and final velocities of each ball before and after they collide.

After finding the mass of each ball with their different initial and final velocities, we were able to analyzed the collision to see if the momentum was conserved.
This was done by calculating the components in the x direction and the y direction and comparing the initial to the final values.


Our Calculations -






Graphs* 
The graphs of our recorded data along with the video captures were lost.



Conclusion:

When the components of the momentum before the collision are nearly equal to the components of the momentum after the collision, momentum is conserved.

A Great Day for Physics.

(10/20/14, 3:50pm)