Lab partners: Kevin Nguyen, Jose Rodriguez
29 April, 2017
Collisions in two dimensions
Purpose: To determine if momentum and energy are conserved by looking at a two dimensional collision.
Introduction: We performed two different experiments: collisions in two dimensional with two ball of the same weight and different weights. We performed these experiments on a leveled glass table. We set one ball in the middle of the leveled glass table at rest and we collided it with another ball with some initial velocity.
Below is the set up we used in order to perform this experiment. We have a level glassed table with an apparatus to record the collision. We used our phones as the recorder. We made our phone capture 60 frames per second to get a more accurate data.
Below is a picture of the results of the collisions between two balls.
This is the process after we video capture the collisions of two balls in 60 frames per second.
First, we started off with the collisions of two balls with a similar mass. To be exact, we used two marbles with a mass of 0.004 kg
Below is the results of both marbles in a two dimensional graph. In order to get this graph, students need to
1. Options-> Movie Options
2. Override frame rate to 60 to 120fps(frames per second))
3. Advance the movie 2 or 4 frames after adding a new point.
This graph is a position/time graph. In the y-axis, we have two x's and two y's since we have the positioning of both marbles.
For the video, we used two different colors for each ball in order to determine its position in a certain time frame, which will result in the creation of our position/time graph.
As a result from this graph, we got the following velocities from the two balls from the slopes.
Intial:
Vy= 418.5 cm/s
Final:
Vx= -138 cm/s
Vy= 284 cm/s
Vx2= 136.2 cm/s
VY2= 108.5 cm/s
With the velocities, we can determine if momentum and energy are conserved by using the formula Pintial= Pfinal.
As a result, both the initial and the final momentum are relatively the same. So, momentum and energy are conserved.
Next, we performed the 2nd experiment when two balls of different masses result in a collision. To be exact, we will be using a marble of 4g and a metal ball of 30g for this case. The marble will be placed at rest in the middle of the leveled glass table while we apply some velocity to the metal ball in the direction of the marble ball.
The graph is a position/time and it is set up similar to the 1st experiment. We have time(x-axis) and the positions of both balls in the x and y direction in the y-axis.
Intial:
Vy= 288.6 cm/s
Final:
Vx= -35.54 cm/s
Vy= 305.7 cm/s
Vx2= 140.1 cm/s
Vy2= 402.9 cm/s
With the velocities, we can determine if momentum and energy are conserved by using the formula Pintial= Pfinal. 
As a result, the initial and final momentum in the x direction are not the same; therefore momentum and energy is not conserved, but the initial and final momentum in the y direction are relatively the same.
Conclusion: We were able to determine if momentum and energy is conserved by performing this lab. We realized that momentum and energy is conserved when we collided two balls with a similar mass in comparison to the collision with two different masses.
















