PASCO ME-6569 RMS_IDS KIT - Manual (Page 15)

012–06408A RMS/IDS Kit
11
Purpose
The purpose of the experiment is to quantitatively and graphically demonstrate the conservation
of momentum and the simultaneous loss of kinetic energy as a result of the collision of a cart with
a cart at rest.
Materials and Equipment Required
• (2) Rotary Motion Sensor (RMS) (CI-6538) • Dynamics Track (ME-9435A or ME-9458)
• (2) RMS/IDS Kit (CI-6569) • PASCO computer interface (700)
• (2) IDS Mount Accessory (CI-6692) • Science Workshop version 2.2 or higher
• (2) Plunger or Collision Cart (ME-9430 or ME-9454) • computer
• pages 2 & 3 of this manual
Experiment 3: Conservation of momentum vs. loss of kinetic
energy in an inelastic collision
m
1
v
1
+
m
2
v
2
= m
after
v
after
KE =
1
2
m
1
v
1
+
1
2
m
2
v
2
Theory
Before the collision of the two carts, the situation can be represented as follows:
where m
1
= the mass of the first cart, v
1
= the velocity of the first cart, m
2
= the mass of the
second cart, and v
2
= the velocity of the second cart, which is 0.
After the collision, the carts stick together and move as one mass, as represented below:
The momentum of the system at any point in time is expressed as follows:
where m
1
v
1
are the mass and velocity of the first cart and m
2
v
2
are the mass and velocity of the
second. Since the momentum is conserved after the collision, the following relationship exists:
where m
after
= the mass of the two carts and v
after
= the velocity of the two carts stuck together.
The total kinetic energy (KE) of the system at any moment in time is represented by:
P = m
1
v
1
+
m
2
v
2
→ m
2
m
1
v
after
→
v
2
(= 0)
v
1
m
1
m
2