Snow Day Momentum

For the snow day blog, I decided to test two different types of inelastic collisions with snowballs.

The first video demonstrates an inelastic collision in which a snowball of 0.25kg hits a wall.

In this inelastic collision, the 0.25kg snowball travels at 1.8m/s and impacts the wall. The snowball breaks into pieces and transfers 0.45 kg*m/s to the wall which is not noticeably moved(high quality wall, cedar shingles, can't beat it).

This second video demonstrates a similar collision in which another 0.25kg snowball hits a stick and knocks the stick off of two cones.

This screenshot shows the trajectory of the snowball and stick as the kinetic energy is transferred from the former to the latter.

If we use the momentum formula of

m1v1+m2v2=m1v1f+m2v2f

we can calculate the mass of the stick that was hit based on this data and then draw conclusions about energy loss.

The data shows that the snowball being thrown had a velocity of 1.8m/s and the stick after being hit had a velocity of 0.75m/s.

0.25*1.8+0*m2=0.25*0+m2*0.75

0.45=m2*0.75

m2=0.6kg.

If this collision is assumed to have been elastic (which it was not) then the mass of the stick is estimated to be 0.6kg. This collision is not elastic as can be proven through observation- the snowball broke on impact and the majority of the snowball was distributed in pieces and only glanced off of the stick. Therefore, not all of the momentum of the snowball was transferred to the stick. This means that the stick likely weighed less than is predicted by this experiment. In practice, I found and used a stick that was approximately the same mass as the snowball to see how the inelastic nature of the collision would impact the mass calculation.

Overall, the experiment resulted in the finding that when a collision that is not elastic but has some elastic properties is falsely interpreted as an elastic collision, data results can be skewed and will likely be inaccurate. The degree to which these calculated results are inaccurate reflects the elasticity of the collision.

Comments

Physics of Black Holes...Or Lack Thereof

Isabella Jacavone To comprehend how the universe works, we must dwell into the most basic building blocks of existence; matter, energy, space, and time. NASA's Physics of the Cosmos program involves cosmology, astrophysics, and fundamental physics intended to answer questions about the elusiveness of complex concepts such as black holes, neutron stars, dark energy, and gravitational waves. In this blog post, I'd like to elaborate on a subject that is very intriguing to me; Black holes. And more specifically, what would happen if we got near one. A black hole is anything but a hole, but rather an immense amount of matter compacted into an extremely small area. A black hole is caused when, hypothetically, a star four times more massive than our sun collapses into a sphere no bigger than 600 square km. To put that in perspective, that's about the size of New York City. B lack holes were predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity, which showed that when a

Physics Behind Drone Flight

A drone flies by using its downward thrust and forcing air in a particular direction in order to sustain a certain speed as well as a specific height. In this video my friend and I had been flying a drone at exactly 4 mph which converts to 1.788 m/s. In this project, we will be determining the forces acting upon the drone in order to sustain a consistent flight in terms of velocity and height while excluding the effects of air resitance. The drone is flying at an angle of 28˚, this is found by extending the tilted axis of the drone to the horizontal and finding the angle with a protractor. From this angle we will be able to calculate the downward thrust and the acceleration of the drone that allows it to maintain its height and velocity during flight. When the mass of the drone is taken it results in 734 grams or .734 kilograms, which will also be used for the calculations within the project. The freebody diagram pictured above will alow us to derive the force equations f

Aerodynamics of a Golf Ball

One may wonder how a small golf ball can travel at incredibly high speeds for such long distances. While the swing of the club is a major component, the structure of the golf ball is quite important. Unlike a baseball or tennis ball, a golf ball has dimples all over it (usually 336 dimples). These dimples allow the golf ball to travel without facing much air resistance. This diagram shows how air travels around the golf ball. The dimples on the golf ball also prevent drag that would occur in the wake region, resulting in further distance. Also due to the contact with the club during the swing, the golf ball has backspin during its entire flight. This diagram shows the motion of the golf ball mid flight with the lift force of F. There are hundreds of different types of golf balls that a player can choose. Some show little affect to a player's game while others can alter their performance completely. Personally, I prefer Callaway Supersoft golf balls, but it is entirely

LSA E Mech 2017-18

Search This Blog