Lab Report

Experiment #1/2016

Chananan Sanamchai 5861014

Lalida Suriyanonrin 5861309
Panisa Rawdloy 5861090
Suppapong Iemkongaenk 5861156

Conceptual Physics
Mahidol University International Demonstration School
Lab Instructor - PWin
Monday, November 14th 2016
Lecture Instructor - Mr. Gopinath Subramanian

Abstract
The purpose of this research is to investigate the linear momentum and elastic collision
which is an encounter between two bodies. The reason we try did this experiment is to see how
mass and speed affect the velocity of an object. We did this experiment by using two carts, a rail,
stopwatch, Labquest, and weight.
First, we put one cart on the rail with certain distance and then we push it to the end of the
rail and timed it to see how long it takes for the cart to reach the other side and. Then we the
distance and the time that we got to calculate the velocity of the cart and we did it twice and find the
average of the result that we get. After that, we put one cart at the end of the rail, which is cart B,
and put another cart in the middle of the rail, which is cart A. We push cart B to hit cart A to see
how they would act after they hit each other. The first time we did not put any weight on neither of
them, then we put a weight on cart A and then another time on cart B.
The result is that when both carts have the same mass, they will stick together and move
forward. When cart A has more mass, when it hit by cart B, car be will bounced back little bit and
cart A will move. On the other hand, when cart B has more mass, it will stop when it hit cart A and
cart A will move forward.

Introduction
Momentum is the product of mass and velocity if an object, quantified in kilogram-meters per
second. Newtons second law of motion states that the change in linear momentum of a body is
equal to the net impulse acting on it. Like velocity, linear momentum is a vector quantity,
possessing a direction as well as a magnitude:

Where p is the momentum vector, v is the velocity vector giving the objects rate if movement in
each direction, and m is the objects mass.
An elastic collision is an encounter between two bodies in which the total kinetic energy of the two
bodies after the encounter is equal to their kinetic energy before the encounter. For the conservation
of the total momentum, the total momentum before collision is the same as the total momentum
after the collision, and is expressed by the equation.

Let m1 and m2 be the masses, u1 and u2 the velocities before collision, and v1 and v2 the velocities
after collision.
In this experiment, we started by running a cart in a certain distance and timed it to calculate the
velocity of the cart. After that, we use two carts which are cart A at rest and Cart B in motion. We
push cart B to hit cart A to investigate the momentum. Then, we did the same thing again but this
time we add weight on Cart A and finally we did the same thing again by putting the weight on Cart
B instead.

Objective
To investigate the linear momentum using the formula

Hypothesis

- If we apply more force to an object, then that object will have more velocity
- If both carts have the same mass, then they will stick together and have same velocity when they
hit each other

- If cart A has more mass and cart B hit it, cart B will bounce back a little bit and cart A will move
-

forward a little
If cart B has more mass, when it hit car A it will stop and Cart A will move forward

Materials

2 Carts
Labquest
Stopwatch
Weight
Rail Track

Methods
1. Put 1 cart on the rail and measure the distance of the rail
2. Push the cart forward and use stopwatch to determine the time it takes to reach the end of the
rail
3. Calculate the velocity
4. Put 1 cart on one side of the rail (cart B) and put 1 cart at the middle of the rail (cast A)
5. Push cart B to hit cart A then use Lab quest to see the velocity when they hit each other
6. Repeat step #4 but put a weight on top of cat A
7. Repeat step #5
8. Repeat step #4 but put a weight on top of cart B
9. Repeat step #5

Both carts have same mass

More mass on cart A

More mass on cart B

Discussion&Error Analysis/Result
In this experiment, first, we use only one cart to calculate the velocity of it. To do that, we
put a cart on one side of rail and then we measured the rail to see how long the rail is so that we can
determine the distance that the cart will travel. Then we push the cart forward and timed it using a
stopwatch and after we got the time, we use v=d/t formula to calculate the velocity of the cart.
When we get the result, we repeat these steps once again and add the two number together then
divided by two to get the average velocity. After that, we started to do the experiment on
momentum by putting one cart on one side of the rail, which is cart B, and one cart in the middle of
the rail, which is cart A. Then we push cart B to hit cart A and when they collide, they stick to each
other and move forward and at this moment, their velocity is equal to each other. The second time,
we put a weight on cart A and then we push cart B to hit it. When they collide, the lighter cart,
which is cart B, rebounded a little bit and then stop then cart A move forward for a short distance.
The third time, we put a weight on cart B instead and when they collide, cart B move forward
slowly but cart A move forward faster than cart B.

Conclusion
In conclusion, we can see from the experiment that mass and velocity have affect on the
momentum of an object. This experiment confirmed that Newtons second law of motion, which
state that the rate of momentum is directly proportional to force and act in the direction of force.