Experiment #3: Collisions

1. Objective The objective of the third experiment of the PH1004 laboratory course is broken down into two parts. In part A, the aim is to assess the conservation of momentum and of kinetic energy for an elastic collision between a moving glider, which runs along a straight line on an air track, and a stationary glider. Momentum, also linear momentum, is a fundamental quantity describing the motion of any object. It is a vector quantity, …

…that the momentum was determined at an error-low level, because the fractional uncertainties were all at approximately the 5% level. The kinetic energy, however, had a higher fractional uncertainty hovering in the region of 12%, because in calculating the initial and final kinetic energies the error in the velocity, which was the dominant part of the uncertainty, was squared. The primary objectives were successfully reached, and a better understanding of collisions along a straight line was attained.