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Activity 18

Accounting for momentum and energy

Activity
By making measurements on multiash photographs such as that in Figure A18.1 or your own from Activity 17, show that momentum is always conserved in collisions, and also investigate how the kinetic energy changes.

Figure A18.1 shows a record of a collision between two identical pucks, each of mass 1 kg. Before the collision, one puck was moving up the page, and the other was at rest. By making suitable measurements on Figure A18.1 or on one of your photographs, draw a scale diagram representing the momentum vectors of the pucks before and after the collision. By calculation, compare the kinetic energies before and after the collision.

Hints
The speed of each puck is proportional to the distance between images, so you can compare the speeds without knowing the scale of the photograph or time interval between flashes. In Figure A18.1 the two pucks are identical so you can compare their momentum vectors without knowing their actual masses.
Figure A18.1 Multiash photo of a collision between two identical pucks

Analysis of results
You will probably find that there is a net loss of kinetic energy in the collision. Discuss how kinetic energy might have been lost. You may also find that your calculated value of the total momentum after the collision is not exactly the same as the initial momentum that you calculated. Discuss how you might account for any discrepancy in momentum.

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Worked example
Measurement
Figure A18.2 shows measurements taken from Figure A18.1. In general the advice is to measure over as many images as possible, since this reduces the overall percentage uncertainty arising from drawing the lines and reading distances from a ruler. We have measured the distance travelled in the time of three ashes of the strobe light. We could not use more because the record of the puck moving up the page contains only three such intervals. In the record of the puck that moved up to the right the rst two images are closer together than the rest, indicating that it was set in motion part way between two ashes; this distance was not included in the measurement.

1.8

3.6
0 cm
23.5

cm

65.5

89

4.20 cm

Comparing momentum
The distance measurements shown in Figure A18.2 are directly proportional to speed. To work out the values of Figure A18.2 Making measurements on a multiash photograph momentum, you need to know the ash rate of the strobe light, the actual scale of the photograph and the mass of each puck. For example, suppose the photograph in Figure A18.1 had been taken using pucks of mass 100 g and a ash rate of 20 Hz, and that 1 cm on the photograph represented 10 cm in reality. The time interval for three ashes would be t = 3 0.050 s, ie 0.15 s. In this time, the puck moving up the page travelled s = 42cm (0.42 m). Its speed before the collision would thus be: s 0.42 m t = = = 2.8 m s1 t 0.150 s Its mass is m = 100 g = 0.100 kg, so its momentum has magnitude: p = mu = 0.28 kg m s
1

0.24 kg m s1

Initial momentum 0.28 kg m s1

91 65.5 0.12 kg m s1

Similarly, the magnitudes of the other two momentum vectors are 0.24 kg m s1 (for the puck moving up to the right) and 0.12 kg m s1 (for the puck moving up to the left). Figure A18.3 shows a vector diagram using these magnitudes and the angles measured from Figure A18.2.

Figure A18.3 Vector diagram using actual values of momentum

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Activity 18

A short cut to momentum

There is a short cut to comparing momentum. Since the pucks have the same mass, the lengths of their momentum vectors are in the same proportion as their speeds. Figure A18.4 shows a scale diagram representing momentum before and after the collision, drawn (twice actual size) directly from the measurements shown in Figure A18.2. Its shape is identical to that of Figure A18.3; the only difference is that the diagrams are different sizes.

Comparing kinetic energy

If the collision was perfectly elastic, we would expect to nd: E0 = E1 + E2 where E0 is the initial kinetic energy of the moving puck, and E1 and E2 the kinetic energies of the two pucks after the collision; ie we would expect: 1 mu2 = mv 2 + mv 2 1 1 2 2 1 2 2 where m is the mass of each puck, u the speed of the initially-moving puck, and v1 and v2 the speeds of the two pucks after the collision. Using speeds calculated above, and m= 0.100 kg, we nd the initial kinetic energy of the moving puck: 1 1 E0 = 0.100 kg (2.8 m s1)2 2 2 = 0.392 J (0.39 J to 2 sig. g.) 1 E1 = 0.100 kg (2.4 m s1)2 = 0.288 J 2 1 E2 = 0.100 kg (1.2 m s1)2 = 0.072 J 2 E1 + E2 = 0.36 J (to 2 sig g) There is therefore a loss of 0.03 J. This quite a signicant fraction of the initial kinetic energy. The fractional loss is 0.03/0.39; ie about 7.7%.

A short cut to kinetic energy

As with comparing momentum, there is also a short cut to comparing kinetic energy. Since both pucks have the same mass, their kinetic energies can be compared just by squaring their speeds: u2 = (2.8 m s1)2 = 7.84 m2 s2 v12 = (2.4 m s1)2 = 5.76 m2 s2 v22 = (1.2 m s1)2 = 1.44 m2 s2 v1 + v2 = 7.20 m s
2 2 2 2

91 65.5

Figure A18.4 Scale diagram representing momentum

The percentage loss in speed2 is the same as the percentage loss in kinetic energy; ie about 7.7%.

An even shorter cut

Since the speeds are directly proportional to the distances measured from the photograph, a quick way to see whether the collision is elastic is simply to square these distances.

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