Momentum Lab

Maddie Roth
CP Physical Science
Period 4

Objective: To calculate the momentum of a system before and after a collision.

Introduction: Momentum is the movement of something considering mass and velocity.
This lab is meant to demonstrate how the momentum changes with changes of mass.

Hypothesis: If there is more weight added to the cart, than the momentum will be faster.
Materials:

2 Halls Carts
Meter Stick
Stopwatch
Track
3 Books
Masking Tape
1 Mass (100g or 500g)

Procedure:
1. Measure and record the mass of the Halls Carts.
2. Secure the mass to one cart using tape.
3. Set-up a ramp along the lab bench closest to the wall (or on the floor)
using the track and three textbooks (used to provide the first cart with a velocity).
4. Mark off 50 cm, and 100 cm marks from the bottom of the ramp, across
the lab bench (or floor) using masking tape.
5. Determine who will be collecting the time data.
6. Place the cart with the additional mass at the top of the ramp, and the
second empty cart at the 50 cm mark. Make sure that the carts are positioned so
they will collide and then stick together with velcro (stiff side to fuzzy side).
7. Release the cart from the top of the ramp.
8. Record the time it takes the one cart to go from 0 to 50cm (before
collision)
9. Record the time it takes the two combined carts to go from 50 to 100cm.
10. Collect data from a few practice runs.
11. Once the data looks consistent, collect these sets of time data for the 050cm and the 50-100cm.
12. Record the data from these trials in the data table.
13. Sketch the lab set up in the space on the next page.
Observations: When the car first went down the ramp(0-50cm) without the added 500g
weight its momentum was faster than the cart with the added weight. It seems the more
weight that is added the more momentum it has. With the 50-100cm the momentum
slows down. Which means the more weight added the slower the momentum will be.
Data:
Distance/Cart

Mass of system
(kg)

Time:
Trial 1

Time:
Trial 2

Time:
Trial 3

Average
Time

0-50 cm with
one cart and

0.053kg
0.553kg

0.88 sec

0.61 sec

1.04 sec

0.84 sec

mass
50-100 cm
with both carts
and mass

0.106kg
0.606

1.41 sec

1.02 sec

1.48 sec

1.30 sec

Calculations: For 0-50: 0.32kgm/s

For 50-100: 0.23kgm/s
Analysis:
1. The parts of the system being studied in this experiment are momentum
and how mass affects it.
2. How the momentum of the system compares before and after the the
collision is before the collision the momentum is slower than after the collision.
The average time for the 0-50 cm is 0.84 sec and for 50-100 cm is 1.30 sec. It
shows the after the collision the cart has a faster momentum.
3. Momentum wasnt conserved because the momentum didnt stay the
same and it changed.
4. If this was a system made up of two cargo ships colliding it would be very
similar to this experiment but in a much bigger scale.
Conclusion: The purpose was met in this lab for the momentum system was calculated
before and after a collision. The hypothesis was wrong because the the data showed
that the more mass there was the faster the momentum. An error in the lab could have
been the person timing starting the timer too late or too early. This can affect the results.
The change in the data can change the outcome of the whole experiment.