Lab 7: Ballistic Pendulum!

Introduction

We will use the ballistic pendulum to analyze processes where the mechanical energy or the momentum is conserved. Equipment Ballistic pendulum, ruler, balance. Description The ballistic pendulum is a tool for measuring the launch speed of an object (muzzle velocity). It is usually used for small and fast projectiles. The diagrams below show the processes involved in its function. The rst process is the launch. An object of mass m is launched with a speed of vlaunch.
m vlaunch

The second process is when the mass m is caught by the pendulum. The mass of the resulting combined object is M+m and the resulting speed is a slower vpendulum.
m vlaunch M+m vpendulum

The third process is when the pendulum travels up the arc to its nal resting position.
M+m hf

Through the second process, the momentum in the horizontal direction is conserved as there is no external net force in the horizontal direction. The mechanical energy is not conserved since you can hear the collision and the bearing sticks to the pendulum.

pxi = pxf mv launch = (M + m)v pendulum

In the third process, the pendulum swings up to the nal height. In this process, the mechanical energy is conserved as no non-conservative work is done, but the momentum is not conserved since there is an external net force acting on the pendulum causing the pendulum to stop.

K i + U i = K f + U f or K f K i = U f U i

1 (M + m)v 2 = (M + m)gh f pendulum 2

Combining the two equations results in an equation for the launch speed.

v launch =

M+m 2gh f m
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Experiment: Ballistic Pendulum Measure the mass of the bearing and the mass of the entire pendulum assembly. Find the center of mass of the pendulum with the bearing in it by balancing the entire assembly on an edge. This is the location where all of the mass of the pendulum may be considered to be and it is the location where we will use to measure the height of the pendulum. Align the opening of the pendulum with the barrel of the spring launcher the best you can. Measure and record the height of the center of mass of the pendulum from the base plate. This is the initial height of the pendulum and bearing after the bearing is captured by the pendulum. Load the spring launcher. Fire the bearing into the pendulum. Measure the nal height of the center of mass of the pendulum at its nal resting position. Calculate the height difference. Do this four times. Calculate the launch speed for each trial, their average, and their standard deviation. Notice that we dont know have an expected value for this experiment. Experiment: Zero Launch Angle We will try to verify the above results by launching the bearing at zero degree. Launch the bearing parallel to the oor from table level four times. Measure the free fall height and horizontal displacement. Calculate the launch speed for each trial, their average, and their standard deviation. Conclusion Present your results from the two experiments. Do the two experiments agree. Specically, do both average launch speeds fall within one or two standard deviations of the other? Address the degree of agreement between the two experiments by looking at the precision of the measurements. If each launch speed is outside of two standard deviations (95% probability range) of the other, then we will say that the two values do not agree. This means that either one or both methods contain systematic error.

v1

v2

If one launch speed is within two standard deviation of the other but not the other way around, then either there is still systematic error in one or both methods, or the precision for v2 is unwarranted.

v1

v2

Ideally, we want both results to be within, at most, two standard deviations from each other in order to pronounce an agreement.

v1

v2

Discuss your results with an eye toward which experiment you are more likely to trust and why? Where do errors come from for each experiment? How would these errors affect the results and their uncertainties?
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