Part2: One-dimensional collisions
The distances traveled by the target nickel for each of the different trials, released at different heights are recorded below:
Observation: When the incident coin hit the target coin, the incident coin almost stopped immediately upon impact, while the target coin moved a distance, as recorded above.
Part3: Two-dimensional collisions
The distances traveled by the incident and the target nickels for each of the different trials, released at different heights are recorded below:
Data processing and presentation:
In Part1 and Part2, where three determinations are made for each trial, the average distance is calculated and recorded below:
Part1: energy measurements
Part2: One-dimensional collisions
For Part3, after the vector calculations and additions, I have obtained the following results for the final vector, i.e., the momentum vector:
Now, to show the relationship of the release height and the average stopping distances in Part1 of both the coins, I have plotted the following graph:
Conclusion & Evaluation:
From the graph, we can see that as the release height increases, the stopping distance also increases. Furthermore, as we know from the principles of energy, the higher the height of the falling object, the higher will be the kinetic energy, while falling down. This is because as the object is falling, the potential energy will be converted to kinetic energy.
If the kinetic energy is directly proportional to the height of the falling object, then this also implies that the higher the kinetic energy, the higher will be the stopping distances. Therefore, a relationship between kinetic energy and stopping distances has been obtained through the experiment.
Overall, the experiment was carried out completely without any major errors. In future, the experiment could be improved by taking more care in being accurate, when releasing the coins.
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