You will verify conservation of momentum in two ways: by treating the two masses

Question

You will verify conservation of momentum in two ways: by treating the two masses individually and as one combined mass at the center-of-mass.

a) How will you turn dots on a piece of paper (the data you take for this lab, showing the paths of colliding particles) into four different velocity vectors . Briefly describe your procedure step-by-step and what tools you will use. For example, will you measure x- and y- components, and how?




b) What is the advantage to using the center-of-mass frame for this experiment?


*Please help will vote lifesaver!**

Explanation / Answer

a) As the dots in your paper will correspond to the corresponding velocity of the particles and taking the angle with the x-axis and taking their x and y component do the same for other dot also now as the law says momentum before collision and after that are same so multiply by the mass and equate it and verify the law in both the direction x and y direction b) advantage is that we will eliminate the problem of taking all the components of both the masses so by taking center of mass we can study the whole system as a whole and in much simpler way.

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