- #1
ScienceStudent
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In my experiment I am performing a collision with two carts with magnets attached with photogates and a labquest on an air track. I pushed the carts together and made sure that the carts did not come into contact. Based on my knowledge of collisions, I believed that the collision would have been elastic because the carts never come into contact and therefore kinetic energy would not dissipate during the collision. However, my data showed that neither momentum or kinetic energy was conserved. Does this mean it was an inelastic collision or did I just do something wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated. I have to do a presentation on this tomorrow.
Extended: I came to the conclusion that the momentum loss was due to the fact that some momentum transferred to the magnetic field and friction also decreased the momentum of the two cart system. I also concluded that because magnetism is a conservative force, any change in kinetic energy has to be due to the force of friction which decreases the cart's velocity at all points between the photogates (not just during the collision). Are these conclusions reasonable? Thank you again to anyone who can help
Extended: I came to the conclusion that the momentum loss was due to the fact that some momentum transferred to the magnetic field and friction also decreased the momentum of the two cart system. I also concluded that because magnetism is a conservative force, any change in kinetic energy has to be due to the force of friction which decreases the cart's velocity at all points between the photogates (not just during the collision). Are these conclusions reasonable? Thank you again to anyone who can help
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