Work-Energy and Momentum
 
Overview
 
Today you are going to record the speeds of two carts before and after a collision. You will do this twice, once with one cart with a nearly elastic plunger extended towards the other cart, and once with shock-absorbing material placed at the points where they hit each other.  You will calculate the carts’ kinetic energies and momenta and observe how they change.
 
There are three parts to this experiment. Part I concerns theory, Part II, data collection, and Part III, analysis. Ideally, you have tried Part I before arriving in lab so that you will have plenty of time to complete the worksheet.  If not, start with Part II.  Collect the data for Question 3 and the yellow boxes of Question 4, then return to Part I.
 
  
Far and near views of today’s equipment and example data.
 
Part I
Part II
Part III
Worksheet
Index