Lab 14: Basic Pendulum Lab

Physics Lab #14 started on 4/27/15
Basic Pendulum Lab
Annemarie Branks
Professor Wolf

Objective: Determine the initial velocity of the ball shot into a pendulum.

Procedure:
     1.  Using a cleverly made apparatus, a spring launches a ball into the hanging mass of the pendulum. The ball and the mass form an inelastic collision. Momentum swings to the pendulum with the ball up a certain angle which is found when the apparatus pushes a vertical wire that is hanging next to the pendulum.
     2.  To find the initial speed, use the Conservation of Momentum Theorem and the Conservation of Energy Theorem. We were given the mass of the the white block of the pendulum, which is 80.9 grams +/- 0.1 gram, and the mass of the ball, which is 7.63 grams +/- 0.01 grams. After firing the ball, we were given and angle of 17.5° +/- 0.5°. We also found the length of the pendulum which is 20.2 cm +/- 0.1 cm.  

Here are the calculations to find the initial velocity at which the ball was launched into the pendulum block. The answer ended up being 4.97 m/s.