Texas A&M University ENGR 216

Abstract The study of collisions between pucks taking place at 8 different angles will be covered in this lab report.
The team will monitor various collision angle traces using the tracking camera, and these measurements will be used
to calculate the momentum before and after each collision and to ensure that momentum is maintained. Furthermore,
to determine the elasticity of the collision, the kinetic energy before and after each collision will be measured. This
exercise gives an appreciation of the characteristics of momentum and kinetic energy in collisions.
Keywords: Velocity, Kinetic, Collision, Puck, Momentum
1. Introduction
On collisions between pucks, lab analysis will be performed. The purpose of the laboratory is to measure the
momentum before and after each collision, to check that the momentum energy is retained, and to measure the kinetic
energy before and after each collision in order to determine the collision 's elasticity. Elasticity is defined by whether
objects stay together, by an elastic collision, or by an inelastic collision when one moves the other. An elastic collision
is defined as one in which the collision has no loss of kinetic energy. An inelastic collision is one where part of the
kinetic energy in the collision is changed to some other source of energy. In the general law of physics, the total
momentum of a system remains constant according to the quantity called momentum that characterizes motion that
never changes in an independent set of objects.
In this laboratory, we will use the data given to avoid the collection of data in the laboratory classroom under
suitable circumstances. As a function of the collision angle, the lab will need plots showing momentum before and
after each collision in the x and y directions. In each of the 8 trials, these angles will be included. An angle of 180
("head-on" collision), 90 and three additional angles of 0 to 90 degrees, as well as three additional angles of 90 to
180 degree