You will fire a paintball into a pendulum bob and measure how far it moves horiz

Question

You will fire a paintball into a pendulum bob and measure how far it moves horizontally. Knowing that the pendulum swings in a circular arc allows you to calculate to what height it rose. From the maximum height to which it rose, you can then deduce the velocity it had at the bottom of the swing (using conservation of mechanical energy). The velocity at the bottom of the swing is the velocity after the collision of the paintball with the pendulum bob.

a.) Since the velocity and therefore the momentum of the pendulum and ball are zero at the heigh "h," how can we say that momentum is conserved in this experiment?

b.) Comment on the following statement: "The momentum of the paintball and bob could not be conserved in this experiment beacuse of the large frictional forces between the bob and the entering paintball."

You will fire a paintball into a pendulum bob and measure how far it moves horizontally. Knowing that the pendulum swings in a circular arc allows you to calculate to what height it rose. From the maximum height to which it rose, you can then deduce the velocity it had at the bottom of the swing (using conservation of mechanical energy). The velocity at the bottom of the swing is the velocity after the collision of the paintball with the pendulum bob. Since the velocity and therefore the momentum of the pendulum and ball are zero at the heigh "h," how can we say that momentum is conserved in this experiment? Comment on the following statement: "The momentum of the paintball and bob could not be conserved in this experiment beacuse of the large frictional forces between the bob and the entering paintball."

Explanation / Answer

The Momentum is Conserved Just Before and After the Collision.

Frictional Forces are the Internal Forces. So there is no External Force .So Momentum remains Conserved irrespective it is an Inelastic Collision

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