Lab Simulation
Use the online resource (web link below) to simulate ballistic pendulum lab.
http://physics.bu.edu/HTMLS/ballistic_pendulum.html
Objectives:
- Learn to calculate the maximum height of a pendulum system.
- Learn to calculate the gravitational potential energy of a pendulum system.
- Learn to predict the angle of deflection of a pendulum system from calculations.
- Develop a thorough understanding of conservation of energy and momentum principles.
- Learn to perform error analysis from dataset.
Lab Activity Report:
The mass and speed of the bullet can be adjusted, as well as the mass and length of the pendulum target using the sliders. This experiment is similar to the projectile launcher lab. In addition to calculating the maximum height reached by the target in its swing and the increase in gravitational potential energy of the Earth-target-ball system, one possibility using the simulation is to predict, using conservation of energy and momentum, the maximum angle of deflection of the pendulum. Calculate the percentage error by comparing the prediction with the actual value that can be measured directly from the simulation by using the pause button and then step to the frame with the maximum deflection.
Use 10 different values of masses, velocities, etc., and calculate the predicted angle of deflection for each case.
Write a lab report of this activity using the format used in previous lab reports.