Dr.

Morgan; AP Physics 1; 2014-2015

Lab: Simple Pendulum

Abstract
In this lab we investigated the effects of the collision angle on the final velocities of two objects that undergo
a two-dimensional glancing collision. We demonstrated that the momentum of the system is conserved in
both the x and y directions.

Procedure
1. Set up a ramp on a lab table. Let a incident marble roll down the ramp and collide with the target
marble at the bottom of the ramp. Be sure to have the marbles collide at the center to not introduce
additional vertical momentum.
2. Use a plumb bob to correspond the position where the collision took place on the ground.
3. Measure the natural direction of the incident marble by letting it roll off the ramp, off the table, and onto
some white paper covered in carbon paper on the ground. Do this multiple times with multiple heights on
the ramp to create a x-axis. Using a permanent marker draw out the x-axis.
4. Using random angles, and the carbon/white paper on the ground to identify where the incident and
target marbles land after each collision. Do collisions with the same angle more than once to account for
any potential error.
5. Measure the x and y displacement of each marble to calculate the angle, relative to the x-axis, of each
marble for each collision.
6. Using kinematics in the vertical direction, calculate the time it takes for the marbles to hit the ground.
Using x and y displacement, calculate the velocity for each marble for each direction in each collision. The
initial and final velocities are the same as there is no acceleration in the x or y directions.
7. Repeat for a total of 5 different collision angles. Make multiple data points to account for any potential
error.

Data
Angles
Target angle
Dot-Dot distance
X-Displacement
Y-Displacement
X-Velocity
Y-Velocity

A collision
46.00
0.288
0.20006
-0.20717
0.46311
0.47956

B collision
58.00
0.220
0.11658
-0.18657
0.26987
0.43188

C collision
66.50
0.135
0.05383
-0.12380
0.12461
0.28658

D collision
62.00
0.133
0.06244
0.11743
0.14454
0.27183

F collision
64.50
0.110
0.04736
0.09928
0.10962
0.22982

Incident Angle
Dot-Dot distance
X-Displacement
Y-Displacement
X-Velocity
Y-Velocity

38.00
0.288
0.22655
0.17700
0.52443
0.40973

28.00
0.345
0.30462
0.16197
0.70513
0.37493

15.00
0.395
0.38154
0.10223
0.88320
0.23665

20.00
0.390
0.36648
-0.13339
0.84833
0.30877

15.00
0.392
0.37864
-0.10146
0.87649
0.23485

Dr. Morgan; AP Physics 1; 2014-2015

y axis

Btarget

Atarget
Dincident

Ctarget

Fincident

x axis
Cincident

Ftarget

Dtarget

Aincident

Bincident

Analysis

After collecting the data I measured the angles relative to the x-axis and the distance from the plum dot to
where the marbles hit the ground. Using trigonometry, I calculated X and Y . Once I had the displacements I calculated the time it took to for the marbles to hit the ground using kinematics in the Z direction,
with the equation X = Vi t 21 at2 . I divided each displacement by the time to calculate the velocity in every
direction, the velocities are constant because there is no acceleration in the x or y directions.

Dr. Morgan; AP Physics 1; 2014-2015

Conclusion
Graph 1 demonstrates conservation of momentum in the y direction by having a ratio of the y-velocities
about equal to 1. This should be the case since the y direction net momentum should be zero for the system.
Graph 2 demonstrates conservation of momentum in the X direction by having values centered around a
constant, 1 in this case.

Dr. Morgan; AP Physics 1; 2014-2015

Graph 1
A
B
C
D
F

Y-Velocity
0.8543842817
0.8681309141
0.8257750777
1.135872863
1.021883446

Graph 2
A
B
C
D
F

Sum X-Velocity
0.9875340332
0.9749980502
1.007805152
0.9928699999
0.9861091309

collision
46
58
66.5
62
64.5

collision
46
58
66.5
62
64.5