IMPULSE AND MOMENTUM

(Catching an egg)

John Richard Mamaril

Joy De Guzman

Central Luzon State University

College of Engineering

ABSTRACT

Catching an egg without breaking or cracking it is one of the application of momentum

and impulse. By throwing and catching an egg in a wrong way may result to crack or break in the
shell of the egg. To discuss further, the mass of the egg is fixed. The velocity was there just before
catching the egg. Reducing the force can be done by keeping the time of contact in the hands
much longer. While increasing the time of contact in the hands, the egg should be catch in
sweeping action. This concept is based on the formula of momentum, where in the force is directly
proportional to the mass and velocity and inversely proportional to the time.
 I. INTRODUCTION

Catching an egg without cracking or breaking it is confusing. An egg is extremely brittle

and fragile from this characteristics we may think that it is impossible to catch an egg without
cracking or breaking it. But the truth is, it is possible by using different techniques and strategies.
It can be seen science, specifically physics in this activity. Using the concept of momentum
and impulse, it can easily explain the reason on how to catch an egg without cracking or braking.

II. MATERIALS AND METHOD

Materials
Fresh eggs
Plastic bag

Method
Every student is ask to look for their partner. The activity is all about catching an egg without
breaking it. To the greatest distance that they will travel in order to win. Simply, throwing and
catching the egg is the work done by the pairs but the interesting part is, the egg should not crack
or break while doing the activity.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

How to catch and egg properly so that it won't crack or break while in contact of the hands?
Using the concept of momentum and impulse in physics, this activity can be easily explain.
Consider the three element suck as force, velocity and time. The mass of the egg is fixed. It can
be written as:
F=mv/t.
Velocity which was there just before catching the egg. Now, in order to decrease the force,
the only thing that we can do is to keep the time of contact in our hands as high as possible.
Doing it will be able to reduce the force to such a limit that the egg even though quite brittle,
won't break. To increase the time of contact we need to catch and egg in sweeping action. We
need to move our hands downwards so that the relative velocity between the hand end the egg
becomes less. This will effectively increase he time and hence the force will be reduced.
 IV. CONCLUSION

Catching an egg is one of the application of momentum and impulse in physics and can be
written as: F=mv/t.
The mass of the egg is fixed. Velocity was there just before catching the egg. Reducing the
force can be done by keeping the time of contact in the hands much longer. To increase the time
in contact with the hands the egg should be catch in sweeping action.

REFERENCES

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Physics-Behind-Egg-Catching:-An-Application-of-Impulse-and-
Momentum&id=7499062

http://www.emcs.org/acstrial/newsletters/summer10/TechPaperWriting.html
 IMPULSE AND MOMENTUM
(Catching a Water balloon)

John Richard Mamaril

Joy De Guzman

Central Luzon State University

College of Engineering

ABSTRACT

Throwing a water balloon and catching it without breaking is one of the application of
impulse and momentum in our real world. Momentum is the mass in motion while Impulse is the
change in momentum. Catching a water balloon in a wrong way may result increase of force
because of the small time may lead to bursting of water balloons. The velocity of the throw greatly
influence the momentum and impulse. To reduce the force of the impact, you need to increase
the contact time of the balloon onto your hand. Increasing the time will result in smaller amount
of force, but still have the same amount of impulse.
 I. INTRODUCTION

Impulse and momentum is a part of our everyday life. As momentum defines, every moving object
has momentum, for momentum is mass in motion indicated by the formula p=mv, where p stands
for momentum, m for mass in kilogram, and v for velocity. An object at rest can never have a
momentum. As seen on the equation, momentum is directly proportional to the mass and velocity
which means that an increase/decrease in mass and/or velocity will also increase/decrease the
momentum by that magnitude. In real life applications, the velocity is always the one which is
changing, but the then change in velocity is acceleration or Force divided by mass, therefore the
stronger the force, the larger the momentum. On the other hand, if you have change in velocity(or
mass), for example a balloon thrown and then catched after 1 second, you will have an Impulse.
Impulse as described is the change in momentum, but it is also directly proportional to the force
and time, increasing the force also means increasing the impulse, also increasing the time interval,
also increases the impulse.

In our activity, we are tasked to catch a water balloon thrown at us by own partners at
increasing distance. Bursting the water balloon or not catching it means your out of the game.
This activity will practice our understanding regarding impulse and momentum and its application
to our real world problems, especially in our course, Civil Engineering.

II. MATERIALS AND METHOD

Materials:

Water balloon

Method:

1. Find a partner.
2. Have at least 1 meter distance to each other.
3. Throw the water balloon so the partner can catch it.
4. After catching, the catcher should take a step backward before throwing again.
5. Repeat the process until the water balloon burst or falls on ground.

III. RESULTS

We learned from the activity the farther the throws are, the harder for it to catch and keep
from bursting. After 5 step backward we failed to catch the water balloon. This due to the fact that
it is very squishy and is difficult to grab. Other teams found their water balloons bursting as they
catch it, or falls into the ground. The other balloons just bounce after they fall, others don’t.
 IV. DISCUSSION

This activity illustrates that the farther you are to the catcher, the larger the force you need
to exert to the water balloon to throw it, resulting to greater velocity, thus greater momentum.
Since Impulse is force multiplied by time, we can say that the farther the catcher is, the larger the
impulse the water balloon have experience, due to the fact that longer distance increases the time
for the water balloon to reach the catcher.

Strong impulses are very lethal to the water balloon. Water balloons contain water that
pushes the rubber thus creating a high pressure to the balloon’s surface, a strong enough force
can easily burst these balloons. Therefore, strong impulse and sudden change in velocity is the
one responsible for bursting the balloons. These strong impulse are achieved because of the faults
in catching the water balloon, catchers might poke the balloons when catching, and this creates
a large pressure over a small area, enough to pierce the balloon. Others are too clumsy to catch,
having a loose are hands can increase the risk of the water balloon slipping off hand or even on
catching it at all. This can lead water balloon into bursting because the ground exerts much greater
impulse because of the sudden stop of the water balloon.

Stopping the water balloon can be a bit tricky, there are also some techniques but only
remember one, the Force is the one responsible for bursting, since Impulse = Force*time, try to
lessen the force by increasing the time. Impulse are always equal in both situation, whether the
force is larger or the time, since both have the same initial velocity and same distance, the only
difference is, as the time grows the force becomes weaker, that’s why catching the water balloon
and continuing its motion in the same trajectory until it stops keeps the water balloon from
bursting, because of longer time. This also explains why momentum is conserved, it is converted
to either force or time and deformations.

V. CONCLUSION

In this experiment, we concluded that momentum is always conserved and is converted into
different form. A moving body always have a momentum. Impulse, on the other hand, is the
change in momentum of force*time. The balloon since it has a high pressure surface, can easily
burst with enough force, that’s why increasing the time of stopping can keep the balloon from
bursting; increasing the time means lowering the force, for it always have constant impulse,
whether the force is large or the time is strong. So with lower force, the water balloon can’t burst.
 VI. REFERENCES

https://study.com/academy/lesson/momentum-and-impulse-definition-theorem-and-
examples.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6k1uabGGc4