Name ______________________ per _____ due date ______________ mail box ____________

(1 pt for complete header)

Rolling Momentum Lab

Today in lab, we will be experimenting with momentum and measuring the actual force of impact due to
momentum of several rolling objects. You will be rolling these objects down a ramp into orange solo
cups. The cups provided have a hollowed out area for the objects (several different balls) to enter, strike
the interior wall of the solo cup and drive it forward. Thus, we can have crude way of measuring the
force of momentum during an impact.

YOU WILL BE TASKED WITH THE FOLLOWING:

 Finding the mass of the various objects.

 Measuring how far the objects drive the solo cup forward
 Calculate speed DATA TABLE I for comparison
 Calculating momentum of the various objects
 Answering several pertinent lab questions
 Creating a diagram of the lab setup and relating it to Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion

PROCEDURE:
Step 1. Measure the masses of the three balls and record in DATA TABLE II: Momentum of
Various Balls.

Step 2. Roll the balls by releasing them individually from the top of the ramp. Be sure to
prepare the solo cup to catch each individual as it exits the ramp.

Step 3. Measure how far the Solo cup slides across the floor.

Step 5. Calculate the momentum of each rolled object, record in DATA TABLE II.

Step 4. Record the distance the cups slide DATA TABLE III.

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EXPERIMENT DIAGRAM:

DATA TABLE I: Speed of Various Balls

DISTANCE TIME SPEED
(meter) (seconds) (m/sec)
Marble 1.2m 1.4 sec m/sec

Golf Ball 1.2m 1.55 sec m/sec

Ping Pong 1.2m 1.8 sec m/sec

DATA TABLE II: Momentum of Various Balls

MASS VELOCITY MOMENTUM
(grams) (m/sec) g(m/sec)
Marble m/sec

Golf Ball m/sec

Ping Pong m/sec

DATA TABLE III: Distances the Solo cup travels

Distance Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average
(inches or cm)
Marble

Golf Ball

Ping Pong

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 LAB WRITE UP QUESTIONS:

1. In Step 3, you measured how far the Solo cup slides across the floor. One of the balls had just crashed
into the cup causing it to slide. What law of motion are we studying here? ______________________

2. What is the relationship between the calculated momentum (DATA TABLE II) and the distance the solo cups
traveled (DATA TABLE III)?
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3. Consider Newton’s Second Law which states that Force = mass x acceleration. Note this is very
similar to the equation for momentum, Momentum = mass x velocity. Acceleration is simply
increasing speed and velocity is simply speed with direction. You watched as each of the balls
accelerate down the track toward the solo-cup. Why does it take longer for the solo cup to stop the golf
ball as opposed to the ping-pong ball or the marble? Discuss force, mass and acceleration. Note: use
DATA TABLE I (speed) for a rough estimate acceleration.
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4. How would you find the force of the ping-pong ball rolling down the track?
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5. The force of friction is what opposes the balls forward momentum and causes it to eventually come to a
stop. You can think of friction in regard to Newton’s Second Law too as a force = mass x deceleration.
Describe where and how the force of friction is opposing momentum.
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6. How could we create a scenario where the marble would cause the cup to slide equally as far as the golf
ball caused it to slide? Discuss the variable to increase and how you would accomplish this.
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7. Is there a height or length of ramp we might increase or change so that our ping-pong ball might attain
significant enough momentum to drive the solo-cup forward as far as the marble does? State your
opinion and explain:
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8. Consider the Newton’s cradle. Is momentum transferred during our experiment in quite the same way
or in another way? Explain:
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Another way to understand collisions is through Newton's 3rd Law, which tells us
that "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction". When the car collides
with a guard rail, the car exerts a force on the guard rail in the direction that the car is
traveling. Meanwhile for every action there is a reaction. The guard rail exerts an
equal and opposite force on the car in the opposite direction. This is the reason that
after the car collides with an object that, it sometimes often is deflected and moves in
a new direction.

9. Use Newton’s 3rd Law to describe our scenario. Describe the initial action, reaction
and relate it to Newton’s 3rd Law. Be sure to explain which part is action, reaction
and how the forces were exerted.
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10. Draw a diagram of the experiment setup (similar to page 2)
Draw: Label:
 ramp  acceleration “zone” of the ball
 text book  Action & Reaction points (with
 ball with vector arrow words and arrows)
 solo-cup  distance “friction zone” (where the
cup is sliding)
Be certain and make sure it is clear in which direction forces are being applied.
At a minimum, you need the 7 things listed above. Be creative & don’t worry about scale.

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 LAB READING MATERIAL

Momentum = mass x velocity

The amount of momentum an object has depends
both on its mass and how fast it is going. For example,
a heavier with more mass object, going the same
speed as a lighter object (less mass) will have greater
momentum. Sometimes when moving objects collide
into each other, momentum can be transferred from
one object to another.

A collision follows the Law of Conservation of Momentum, which states "the total amount of
momentum before a collision is equal to the total amount of momentum after a collision." A
classic collision example may be observed in a game of pool. Watch a moving cue ball hit a
resting pool ball. At impact, the cue ball stops and transfers all of its momentum to the other
ball, resulting in the hit ball rolling with an initial speed of that of the cue ball.

Another type of collision, the total momentum of the system is conserved, but the total kinetic
energy of the system is not conserved. Instead, the kinetic energy is transferred to another
kind of energy such as heat. A dropped ball of clay demonstrates an extremely different kind of
collision. It does not bounce at all and loses its momentum. Instead, all the energy goes into
deforming the ball into a flat blob.

In either example, a quantity (a number) for momentum can be measured by taking the
product of mass and velocity.

Momentum = mass x velocity

Ex: Mass of a ball = 5 grams, (Speed or Velocity) = 25 ft/s

5g x 25ft/s = 125 grams per foot per second or 125g per ft/s

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Prep: Answer the follow from the reading and knowledge attainted during class.

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