Claim -
After the trials, the cart with the plunger attached had the greater change in momentum(or impulse).
Evidence-
After the trials, the cart with the plunger attached had the greater change in momentum(or impulse).
Evidence-
- Momentum and impulse are vector quantities (can be negative)
- The plunger cart had a slightly greater mass
- The cart with the plunger rebounded
- The cart with velcro stopped more abruptly
- Sources of error
- error in starting / ending the graph
- error in rounding the numbers
- error in releasing the car
- error in starting / ending the graph
Reasoning-
The cart with the greater change in momentum/impulse was the plunger cart. In order to find the momentum of an object, you multiply the mass and velocity. The mass of the plunger cart was greater than the mass of the velcro cart. The average velocity of the plunger cart was also greater than that of the velcro cart. The lack of a rebound for the velcro cart caused the V2 (or the final velocity) to be much lower. Because the object did not come to a complete stop due to the force applied by the barrier, the velocity was still positive. The velcro cart moves backwards slightly on impact. The velocity for the plunger cart was negative because the car was going backward rather than either going forward or stopping. The impulse of the plunger cart was almost two times the impulse of the velcro cart. This lab demonstrated the scientific phenomena dealing with momentum, impulse, mass and velocity. To further support my claim I could do more trials and be more precise with the data and graphing process from start to finish. Bumper cars also show these results. The bumpers (plunger on the car) are used to change the momentum of the car so that the impact is less. When the cars hit each other (or the plunger hits the barrier) they rebound off of each other, making the final velocity negative.