Autumn, Elizabeth, Keaton, & Heston

Major Concepts Momentum is inertia in motion, or more specifically, the mass of an object multiplied by its velocity. Impulse is the product of force multiplied by the time interval during which the force acts. The impulse is equal to the change in motion. Conserved is when the momentum does not change. Law of conservation of momentum is the idea that momentum is conserved when no external force acts is elevated to a central law of mechanics. Elastic collision is when the colliding objects bound or rebound without lasting deformation or the generation of heat. Inelastic collisions is when colliding objects become distorted and generate heat during the collision.

Historical Perspective The impulse needed to bring something to a stop and then "throw it back again" is greater than the impulse to just bring something to a stop. The fact that impulses are greater when bouncing takes place was brought up with great success in California during the Gold Rush. The water wheel used in gold-mining operations were no where near efficient enough. A man named Lester Pelton saw that the problem was because of the flat paddles. He then designed curved shaped paddles that would cause the water to turn in a U shape upon impact or as they said it would "bounce". With this the impulse exerted on the water wheel was massively increased. Pelton patented his idea and made more money from his new invention called, "the Pelton Wheel" than any of the gold miners. Isaac Newton concluded that, "If you wish to accelerate an object, you must apply force to it." With that said, changing momentum has the same idea. If you wish to change the momentum of an object, exert an impulse on it.

Application of Concepts If there are two balls and one is at rest and the other is coming towards the ball at rest. When the moving ball hits the ball at rest the moving ball will then stop and the ball that was at rest will be pushed and begin moving. If two balls are rolling towards each other at the same speed and hit, the balls are both going to go back in the direction they came. If two balls are going in the same direction and the ball that is behind is going faster then the ball in front when the balls hit the one that is behind will slow down and the one in front will speed up.

Background Information Momentum can be defined as "mass in motion." All objects have mass; so if an object is moving, then it has momentum - it has its mass in motion. The amount of momentum that an object has is dependent upon two variables: how much stuff is moving and how fast the stuff is moving. Momentum depends upon the variables mass and velocity. In terms of an equation, the momentum of an object is equal to the mass of the object times the velocity of the object. u4l1a.cfm

Question/Hypothesis Question: – Will momentum effect the outcome by having the bigger marble push the paper farther than the smaller marble will? Hypothesis: We hypothesize that the larger marble will push the paper back farther than the smaller marble.

General Statement We'll stack the text books on a table, and then make the yardstick a ramp leaning on the top of the 3 books. The folded piece of paper will be at the bottom of the yardstick-ramp. First we'll roll the big marble down the ramp 3x. Each time we'll record the distance that the marble moved the paper. Then we will do the same for the small marble. For the second part of the experiment we will use a ruler as a ramp instead of the yardstick and then follow the same procedures as before.

Apparatus/Materials Needed A gram marble A 5.15 gram marble Ruler Two yard sticks Pen Paper Three books Piece of paper Triple beam balance

Step-By-Step Instruction 1) We'll stack the text books on a table, and then make the yardstick a ramp leaning on the top of the 3 books. 2) Then the folded piece of paper will be at the bottom of the yardstick-ramp. 3) Then we'll roll the big marble down the ramp 3x. 4) Then collect data each time after we roll the marble down the ramp. 5) Then we will do the same for the small marble. 6) For the second part of the experiment we will use a ruler as a ramp instead of the yardstick and then follow the same procedures as before.

Collecting/Presenting Data Big Ramp Height: 9cm Length: 98.5cm Hypotenuse: 98.9cm Small Ball Trail One: 26cm Trial Two: 27.5cm Trial Three:24.5cm Big Ball Trial One: 55cm Trial Two: 45.5cm Trial Three:76cm Small Ramp Height: 9cm Length: 27.6cm Hypotenuse: 29cm Small ball Trial One: 24.3cm Trial Two: 24cm Trial Three: 27cm Big Ball Trail One: 50cm Trial Two: 52cm Trial Three: 55cm Calculations: Average of small ball on big ramp. 26cm+27.5cm+24.5cm=78cm 78cm/3= 26cm Average of big ball on big ramp 55cm+45.5cm+76cm=176.5cm 176.5cm/3=58.8cm Average of small ball on small ramp 24.3cm+24cm+27cm=75.3cm 75.3cm/3=25.1cm Average of big ball on small ramp 50cm+52cm+55cm=157cm 157cm/3=52.3cm

Analysis When rolling the larger ball toward the paper, it managed to hit the paper making it go farther. In contrast the smaller ball did not make it go as far when it hit the paper.

Conclusion We conclude that momentum does plays a role in this experiment because the mass of the marble effects how far the paper will go back because the marble with more mass pushes the paper back farther.

Evaluation Our hypothesis was correct because the larger marble made the paper go back farther than the smaller marble.