Physics Lab Report

Conservation of Momentum

Objective:
The objective from this lab is to study and understand about The principle of
conservation of momentum through a simulation. Besides, to practice and
understand how to calculate the momentum, both before and after the collision.
Lastly, to analyze the values of momentum.
Materials:
- 2 Carts with the Velcro Fasteners
- 2 Light-Gates (Photo gates)
- Smooth Track
- Metal Rod
- The PDA
- Weighing Machine
Procedure:
1. Prepare the materials and check them to make sure that they can work
properly.
2. Weigh the mass of both carts and find the diameter of the metal rod.
3. Put metal rod on the top cart1.
4. Set up both carts on the track. Make sure that cart1 is in front of photogate1
however you need to have some gaps between cart1 and photogate1. For
cart2, put cart2 between photogate1 and photogate2.
5. Open the PDA, let one person in the group to take care/control the PDA.
6. Have one person to push cart1 and have another person waiting at the end of
the track so that when both carts collide, they will not hit the bumper at end
of the track.
7. When the person who need to push cart1 push cart1 gently, the person who
control the PDA need to press play button on the PDAs screen already in
order to record the data.
8. The person who is at the end of the track stops both carts before they hit the
bumper.
9. The person who control the PDA press stop button.
10. Record the result, calculate the momentum and answer the questions.
Result:
Mass of cart1, m1 = 0.5153 kg.
Mass of cart2, m2 = 0.4956 kg.
Speed of cart1 before collision, v1 = 0.639 m/s
Speed of carts (1+2) after collision, v2 = 0.333 m/s
Calculations
Momentum before collision = m1 (v1) = 0.51530.639 = 0.329 kg m/s
Momentum after collision = (m1+m2) v2 = 1.01090.33 = 0.337 kg m/s
Analysis:
From this experiment, we can prove that the total momentum after the
collision equal to the total momentum before the collision, it might not be perfectly
equal but similar. Besides, the principle of conservation of momentum has been
verified. Lastly, there is an external force act on the system of colliding carts which is
the friction but in this case, it makes little effect to the result.
Conclusion:
As we have shown our results. We can conclude that the total momentum
between after the collision and before the collision are equal, which means that the
principle of conservation of momentum been verified.
After we have discussed about the reason why the results are correct is
because according to the principle of conservation of momentum, Total momentum
before collision equals the total momentum of the objects after the collision.
As the results have shown the momentum before collision was

and the value of momentum after collision was

so it mean that both

two value are equal and it conform to the principle of conservation of momentum
There are some errors happened while we measure the mass of the car. In
order to get an accurate value of mass of each car, we have to measure it many
times.
























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