THE LAW OF CONSERVATION

OF MOMENTUM

[ Accelerated Physics ]

EDITED BY
Nattapoom Dumrongloahapun
Bhumrapee Soonjun
Panupatr Limpasert
Teeradej Lo
Kanagai Mahakilpalach
Puwitch Sangchan
Phiraphat Chariyarattanarat

NOVEMBER 23 , 2018
MAHIDOL UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL DEMONSTRATION SCHOOL
 STNETNOC FO ELBAT
Introduction 3
Objective 6
Materials 7
Methods 8
Pictures 9
Table 10
Discussion of Physics Concepts 12
Discussion of Design 15
Conclusion 16
Recommendation 17
References 18

02
INTRODUCTION
It is undeniable that momentum has played a major role in
human daily lives. The momentum simply refers to a product
of an object’s mass and its velocity (Rader, 2015) which can
be shown in a written formula as the following equation.
p = mv

As it is shown, there are three variables presented, where

and are momentum, mass and velocity respectively. According
to the Newton’s first law of motion, every object has an
inertia – a property of an object to resist a change in motion –
and it is safe to say that the mass actually depends on this
property of the object. Thus, the mass can also be called as a
measure of the inertia. Since the momentum relates to the
mass, it is therefore an inertia in motion (Elliott, 2016).
When an object starts to move, it has velocity and the
momentum thus is generated. As the momentum is created, it
cannot be destroyed. This therefore means the momentum is
conserved, which coincides to the law of conservation of
momentum. In this law, it is stated that in the absence of
external forces, the momentum is conserved in all interaction,
which means the change in total momentum of the first object
is equal and opposite to the change in total momentum of the
second object. The momentum is conserved in every type of
collision, whether it is elastic collision, perfectly inelastic
collision, and inelastic collision (Nave, 2017).

03
INTRODUCTION
In elastic collision, the two objects collide and bounce off.
After the objects collided, it is not only the momentum that is
conserved, but also the kinetic energy (Jones, 2018). With this
fact, two equations can be formed which are as follows:
m1 u1 + m2u2 = m1 v1 + m2v2

1 1 1 1
_ m1 u21 + _ m2u 22 = _ m1 v 21 + _ m2v 22
2 2 2 2
For the second type of collision, it is a perfectly inelastic
collision in which the objects collide and stick together, so
they share the same final velocity. In this type of collision,
although the momentum is conserved as always, the kinetic
energy is lost (Inelastic Collision Formula, n.d.). It therefore
can be represented by only one formula, the following
equation.
m1 u1 + m2u2 = (m 1+ m2)v

Another type of the collision is an inelastic collision. This

type of collision is perhaps the most common type found in
the real world (Ferrao, 2015). In this type of collision, the
objects collide and remain move separately just like the elastic
collision, but the kinetic energy is lost as it is lost in the
perfectly inelastic collision. Anyway, the momentum is
conserved. So, the equation can be formed as follows:

m1 u1 + m2u2 = m1 v1 + m2v2

04
INTRODUCTION
As regard to the equations related to the law of
conservation of momentum in all type of collision, there are
six variables appeared which are  and , where they are mass of
the first object, mass of the second object, initial velocity of
the first object, initial velocity of the second object, final
velocity of the first object, and final velocity of the second
object respectively.
For this lab, the law of conservation of momentum is a
main focus. However, there is only one type of collision – the
perfectly inelastic collision – that has been tested. The carts
are used in this experiment. As the two objects, in this case,
carts, collide and stick together, their masses are also
combined and can be expressed as . Since they stick together,
they share the same final velocity. So, the equation used to
find the total final momentum can be represented by , and the
equation for finding the total initial momentum is . To prove
the law of conservation of momentum, both of equation
therefore have to be equal.

05
OBJECTIVE
The main objective of this lab was to demonstrate and test
the law of conservation of the momentum using the
knowledge and understanding of momentum and the types of
collision. By measuring the mass, initial velocity, and final
velocity of each object, the total momentum before the
collision and the total momentum after the collision can be
determined, and thus law of conservation of momentum can
be proved. 
The purpose of this lab was to learn about applying the
knowledge from the classroom to find out that the law of
conservation of momentum really works in the real world –
not only is the theoretical law. In addition, this lab would
provide a better understanding in the concepts of momentum
and types of collision.

06
MATERIALS
1. Weighing machine
2. Motion Detector
3. Mass A
4. Track
5. 2 Carts

07
METHODS
1. Measure the mass of both carts without any additional
weight
2. Setup the Motion Detector
3. Put both carts on the track, having some space between the
carts
4. Push the cart which is closer to the motion detector so that
it collide and stick with the others cart
5. Record the velocity before and after the collision
6. Repeat step 3-5 for 3 times
7. Add additional weight to one of the carts and measure it
mass again
8.Repeat step 3-5 for 3 times
9. Calculate the momentum before and after the collision for
each round

08
PICTURES

09
TABLE
Without Additional Weight
Mass Cart 1 = 521.22 g = 0.52122 kg
Mass Cart 2 = 516.44 g = 0.51644 kg

10
TABLE
With Additional Weight
Mass Cart 1 = 521.22 g = 0.52122 kg
Mass Cart 2 = 1050.05 g = 1.05005 kg

11
PHYSICS CONCEPT
Momentum is a property that a moving object has.
Momentum is defined as mass in motion or in others word,
inertia in motion. The equation for momentum is p = mv,
Momentum is equal to the product of mass and velocity, hence
momentum is a vector quantity. According to the law of
conservation of momentum, it is stated that “A momentum of
a system is always conserved”, in others word the momentum
of the initial condition of the system and the final condition of
the system must be equal. With this, it implies that before the
collision and after the collision the momentum of an object
must be equal. Types of collision are mainly divided into two
different type. First, elastic collision and second, inelastic
collision. An elastic collision is when two objects collide and
bounce off in the opposite direction it was traveling, with no
loss of kinetic energy, hence kinetic energy is also conserved
within the system of elastic collision. Elastic collision can, also,
be classified into two distinct types, first an elastic collision
and perfectly elastic collision. The perfectly elastic collision is
a type of elastic collision that no energy has been lost, hence
all is conserved. An elastic collision is another type of elastic
collision, that’s energy has been lost, but the energy lost can
be negligible, so we can call it an elastic collision.  Also, the
velocity of one object will be transferred to another within the
elastic collision. The example could be a billiard ball.

12
PHYSICS CONCEPT
Suppose there is two billiards ball on the table. One of the
balls is at rest in the middle of the table. Another is traveling
at it with the velocity of u. After the two collides, the velocity
of the ball that was moving will be transferred to the ball that
was at rest, hence the ball that was originally at rest would
move with the speed of u, same as the original speed of the
original ball that was moving. Another type of collision is an
inelastic collision. Like elastic collision, an inelastic collision
can, too, be classified into two types, first perfectly inelastic
collision and second inelastic collision. Unlike elastic collisions,
in every inelastic collision the only momentum is conserved,
hence kinetic energy can be lost. In a perfectly inelastic
collision, the two object collided and sticks to each other and
move together in the same direction, hence the mass of the
two objects add up, and that is of the reason why there is a
loss of kinetic energy. Unlike perfectly inelastic collision, in
inelastic collision two object collides, but do not stick
together. In this lab,  we are testing on the law of
conservation of momentum by using the tracks and two carts
simulating the perfectly inelastic collision. Two of the cart is
at rest, initially, after we provide force to one of the carts to
move forward the cart gains acceleration, and with
acceleration it has velocity. From the equation, we have F=ma.
Then, with force applied, according to the newton second’s
law which states that “ The acceleration produced is directly

13
PHYSICS CONCEPT
proportional to its force applied “, we can say that it gains
acceleration, a = F/m, whereas m is constant. With velocity it
gain momentum from the equation, p = mv, whereas p is
momentum, m is mass and v is velocity, respectively. When
the two object collided and sticks together and move together
as a piece, it momentum must be conserved as stated in the
law of conservation of momentum. Hence we can derived this
equation, m1u1 + m2u2 = ( m1 + m2 )v. With this equation, we
can use basic algebra to solve for final velocity after collision,
since the mass, m, is always constant. But in the purpose of
this lab we measure both initial velocity and final velocity
after collision for the purpose of proving law of conservation
of momentum. Since m2 is at rest initially, its momentum
must be zero, therefore, m1u1 + m2u2 = ( m1 + m2 )v. But
because of loss of energy, as thermal, sound and etc, the
measured value will of the velocity will be decreased, hence
calculations would not meet the exact predicted momentum
value according to the theory. But if the system is completely
isolated, then the momentum should be fully conserved. Most
of the time in our daily life, we would likely face more elastic
collision than we see inelastic collision. One of the most basic
example of the all would be throwing ball at the wall, and the
wall bouncing back in the same direction. Momentum also
incorporate Newton’s laws of motion into it. And this is why
such fields in physics are interconnected.

14
DESIGN
The settings for this experiment require a track, two carts,
a weight, motion detector and device, and a weight balance.
Two of the cart will reside on the track, one at rest in the
middle, the others at rest in the rim. The cart on the rim will
be push collides into the one at rest in the middle. The motion
detector will collect data from the experiment and the
machine will output the result at the device. We then can
measure the velocity before and after the collision of the
objects, and use it to calculate the momentum of before and
after the collision. The weight balance is used to measure the
weigh of both carts, before the experiment.

15
CONCLUSION
Carts in this experiment helped us demonstrate the law of
conservation of momentum. We proved the law by applying
force to the first cart, thus the cart drive toward the second
cart along the track. After the cart’s collision, the first cart
connected to the second one by using Velcro strap. This adds
the weight to the first cart. We justify the law by measuring
the speed of the first cart before and after the link. We
measured the mass of first and second cart, and then use it to
calculate the momentum. The resulting momentum before and
after collision is very close to equal to each other, which
confirm the Law of Conservation of momentum. We also
calculate the momentum after adding a weight to the second
cart. The result is almost same in momentum for before and
after the collision. The small error came from the track
friction and not straight shape of the track. Overall, the
experiment is successful.

16
RECOMMENDATION
In this lab, the data such as velocity and distance were
gathered by the motion detector, so the error margins would
be small comparing to measurements using a timer. But still,
the data that we used did not perfectly satisfy the equation
m1u1+m2u2 = (m1+m2)v. We speculated that it was either
because the final velocity we took from the data was not at
the exact moment when the collision happened, thus resulting
in small differences between m1u1+m2u2 and (m1+m2)v ,or it
was because of loss of energy due to friction. Other than
about the data, we noticed that the bases that hold up the
track which the cart had run on was not at the same height,
making the track tilted marginally to the side.We also noted
that sometimes when the collision happened, the cart strayed
off the track because the collision was too strong. We could
reduce the force and let the same person to do all rounds of
experimentation to create more consistency between the data.
The motion detector measured the distance and velocity by
emitting a sound toward the object and calculate the time it
took for the sound to reflect back to the motion detector.
Considering that, there were a lot of surrounding noise when
we did the experiments, so it could cause some
mismeasurements. Doing the experiment in a quiet place
might lead to more accurate results.

17
REFERENCES
Elliott, P. (2016). Momentum. Retrieved from
https://slideplayer.com/slide/10862485/

Ferrao, L. (2015). What are the causes of inelastic collisions.

Retrieved from
https://www.embibe.com/exams/what-are-the-causes-
of-inelastic-collisions/

Inelastic Collision Formula. (n.d.). Softschool. Retrieved from

http://www.softschools.com/formulas/physics/
inelastic_collision_formula/91/

Jones, A. (2018). What Is Elastic Collision? Retrieved from

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-elastic-collision-
2698742

Nave, R. (2017). Elastic and Inelastic Collisions. Retrieved from

      http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/elacol.html

Rader, A. (2015). Momentum Basic. Retrieved from

http://www.physics4kids.com/files/motion_moment.html

18