Questions: Experiment VIII - Energy and Momentum The apparatus consists of a box resting on the table and a pendulum. You will raise the pendulum a specified height H, and release it so it hits the box. You are to determine the distance D that the box will slide before coming to rest. In its initial position the box should just touch the pendulum bob when the bob is hanging straight down. Treat the pendulum bob as a point particle located at its geometrical center. In particular, use its center as the point of reference for position measurements of the bob. You may assume the collision between the bob and the box is completely inelastic (it isn't, but it's a reasonable approximation.) Make sure you use center-of-mass to center-of-mass, not to table-top, when measuring H. Activity 1 Run the experiment several times so you have a clear picture of what happens. Use only H=45 cm. The bob is soft and becomes flattened after each collision with the box. Reshape it into something more like a ball before each trial. Reject any runs in which you do not hit the box near the center or for which the box twists. P=Nav Activity 2 Separate what you observe into several "steps" occurring sequentially. Try to find steps that conserve mechanical energy, momentum or both. It's okay if there are steps that don't conserve either. For example, you can deal with non-conservation of energy by calculating the work done by the force responsible for non-conservation.

Transcript text: Experiment VIII - Energy and Momentum The apparatus consists of a box resting on the table and a pendulum. You will raise the pendulum a specified height $H$, and release it so it hits the box. You are to determine the distance $D$ that the box will slide before coming to rest. In its initial position the box should just touch the pendulum bob when the bob is hanging straight down. Treat the pendulum bob as a point particle located at its geometrical center. In particular, use its center as the point of reference for position measurements of the bob. You may assume the collision between the bob and the box is completely inelastic (it isn't, but it's a reasonable approximation.) Make sure you use center-of-mass to centerof-mass, not to table-top, when measuring $H$. Activity 1 Run the experiment several times so you have a clear picture of what happens. Use only $H=45 \mathrm{~cm}$. The bob is soft and becomes flattened after each collision with the box. Reshape it into something more like a ball before each trial. Reject any runs in which you do not hit the box near the center or for which the box twists. $P=\operatorname{Nav}$ Activity 2 Separate what you observe into several "steps" occurring sequentially. Try to find steps that conserve mechanical energy, momentum or both. Tt's okay if there are steps that don't conserve either. For example, you can deal with non-conservation of energy by calculating the work done by the force responsible for non-conservation. Energy and Momentum