Physics 105

April 23, 2003

Today we will finish analyzing our collision experiments. Each person must have analyzed the collisions in which he/she was involved. For each collision you should have determined:

• The momenta of the carts (+students) before and after the collision
• The kinetic energies of the carts (+students) before and after the collision

For each collision, these parameters were obtained separately by two students. Any large discrepancies between these two analyses must be resolved at this point by making a detailed comparison between the data used.

Today we will focus in more detail on the actual deformation of the cans. We will talk about various models that can be used to explain the observed deformations and test these using the data collected. The first two models we will consider to relate the deformation to the loss of kinetic energy make the following assumptions:

• Energy required to deform the can is proportional to the deformation
• Energy required to deform the can is proportional to the square of the deformation

Today we will test these two models by combining all the data we collected.

© Frank L. H. Wolfs, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA

Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2003 0:26