Taking in the moment(um)

On this snow day, to show the conservation of momentum I decided to make a snowball and then hit it off an elevated surface. Now this is not the most exciting blog but it is a great way to show momentum.

Using logger pro I found the velocity of the stick I hit the snowball with. I found that to be 6.5 m/s.I approximated the mass of the stick to be around 1.5 kg. Next I found the velocity of the snowball as it fell down. It fell directly in the y direction at 4.3 m/s. The snowball was approximately 2.2 kg.     

With calculations
Before collision: 1.5*6.5 + 2.2* 0 = 9.75 kgm/s
After collision: 1.5*0 + 2.2*4.3 = 9.46 kgm/s

Since the weight of my stick and snowball are approximations the number may not exactly line up. Still the momentum before and after were fairly close to each other so you can see how momentum was conserved.

Now for kinetic energy lost I took the kinetic energy before the collision minus the kinetic energy after the collision

KE = [½(1.4)(6.5)+½(2.2)(0)]- [ ½(1.4)(0) + ½(2.2)(4.3)]

KE = -0.18 J

I found that -0.18 J were lost during this inelastic collision

Side note: My hair was very frozen after this video