• Equipment and Setup
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• CUPOL Experiments

Equipments used in this experiment are (see Figure 1): Air track with blower, tow gliders, glider attachments (rubber-band yoke, flat blade, pin with cork attachment, wax insert attachment), two timing flags, two photogates, four 0.05kg masses. Photogate A should be pluged inton DIG/Sonic 1 and photogate 2 should be pluged into DIG/Sonic 2. Make sure the rubber-band yoke, flat blade, pin with cork attachment and the wax insert attachment are aligned (see Figure 2). Use the 'Lab programs -> 207 Labs -> Conservation of momentum' program to record the data you need (see Figure 3). See Figure 4 for part I and Figure 5 for part II. Both of them are elastic collisions. Figure 6 shows the scenario of part III, which is called 'explosion' and it's an inelastic explosion.

[Click on images to enlarge.] 1 2 3 4 5 6

• Perform the experiment ahead of time!
• Don't allow the gliders to crash in to the air track stops.
• Set the power of the air blower to maximum because this helps to minimize the friction.
• Make sure the rubber-band yoke, flat blade, pin with cork attachment and the wax insert attachment are aligned (Figure 2).
• Make sure that the students pluged the photogates into the correct jacks.
• Students should clearly show the directions of the veclocity they record. This is very important when they verify the law of conservation of linear momentum. It's helpful to remind them to put the minus before the magnitude when necessary.
• In part I and II, the glider should pass completely through photogate A before the collision.
• In part III, two gliders should be released simultaneously.

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The Lab Manual for this experiment does not exist on-line.

Take a look at these CUPOL experiments for an on-line laboratory experience:

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