COM Elastic Collision Lab

Thornridge High School

COM Elastic Collision Lab

Mr. Sievers AP physics class performed a multiple-concept experiment involving conservation of momentum, conservation of energy, and projectile motion concepts. The students let a steel marble roll down a ramp and collide with a plastic marble of the same size, but obviously different mass. They then used prior knowledge to predict where both marbles would land and place 2 targets, one for each marble. It was an advanced shoot for your grade lab. From the photos, the students had to take velocity data and perform several pages of calculations before they could determine where to place both targets. It was an intensive lab and utilized more than half the concepts they have learned this semester.