Explore
collisions in two dimensions. Choose two marbles, ball bearings, or
other rigid spheres. They need not be identical, but at lease one of
them should be at least 2cm in diameter. Construct an apparatus that lets you launch the smaller marble, call it m1, towards the larger one (m2)
at a controlled velocity; you may follow the example with the ruler
from section 7.3 of the textbook, or use any other convenient guide
rail. Mark a reference line along the path m1 follows when there is no collision and call this line θ=0.
If you place m2 exactly on this line, the marbles collide in one dimension and you can predict the outcome easily. If, however, you offset m2 slightly from the center of the line, the two marbles collide off-center and recoil at different angles θ1 and θ2. Measure the dependence of θ2 on theta1. Repeat the experiment several times with different offsets of m2,
measuring both recoil angles, and plot one versus the other. What
trends can you identify in the graph? If you measure the masses of the
marbles or the initial velocity of m1, you can predict the dependence of θ2 vs theta1; do your measured data conform to expectations?
one or two pages
0 comments