The Loughman, Dennison, Kollar Vertical Toss Lab

Experimental Questions
Our main experimental question was “How does momentum in the y-direction, change
based on different massed objects that are thrown up into the air?”. Other questions that we took
into account are : “What does the change of momentum look like over the course of the throw?”,
“How does the momentum compare when going up versus coming down?” and “How does our
theoretical data compare to Trackers data?”

Predictions
We predicted that the total change in momentum would be negative, due to gravity
constantly acting on the ball, and we predicted that our initial momentum and final momentum
would be the opposite of each other. For example, if we threw a ball into the air with an initial
momentum of 5 kgms, we predicted that the momentum of the ball coming back down would be
-5 kgms. Another prediction was that the objects with more mass would have higher momentums
during the trials. Our last prediction was that we thought the calculated theoretical values would
be close to or identical to our experimental values.

Theory
The main idea behind our experiment was momentum. This was observed and created by
Descartes. He first came up with the idea when looking at someone on rollerskates. They are
standing still but when an outside force, in this case a medicine ball, acts upon the person on the
roller skates, they begin to roll backwards. After research and observations, he came up with the
equation p=mv. This is momentum equals mass times velocity. Momentum is also a vector
meaning it has a direction and a magnitude.

Experiment
For our experiment we went into an open room where we could record ourselves
throwing the different massed balls upward. We wanted to have a relatively similar height for all
of our throws, so for our experiment we aimed for the same height for the videos. This was hard
to do since we were limited by having a human throw the ball. Having a pitching machine or
other device would have made that more obtainable. The heights we got were similar but we
couldn’t get them the exact same. The independent variable of our experiment was the mass of
the balls. The dependent variable was the velocity of the balls when thrown. Our group decided it
would be best to start with the lightest ball. We would go in numerical order, so each time we
changed balls it got heavier. The masses of the balls went 4oz.(113.398g), 8 oz.(226.796g), 14oz.
(396.893g), 21oz.(595.34g), 32oz.(907.185g) . Each throw was considered one trail. We did as
many trials as we needed to get a good height and video that would help us get the best data
possible. Once we got the videos for each we opened them in tracker and manually tracked each
point for every ball. After we obtained our data we put the data points in an excel sheet so it was
easier to examine. Then with the data from tracker we got graphs of momentum of tracker to
further our knowledge of what happened during the experiment. Also, to put into our
presentation for others to be able to understand. We used the equation vf = vi + a*Δt to obtain
theoretical values for final velocity(vf). We used initial velocity (vi ), and the change in time(Δt)
from tracker. Acceleration was constant because it was in the y-direction and gravity would be
affecting it the whole time. After obtaining the theoretical data we were looking for, we
compared it to the tracker values we had gotten(All data and calculations are shown below). We
then used the theoretical and tracker velocities at certain points to calculate the theoretical and
tracker momentums. We did this by taking the momentum theoretical values divided by the
momentum of the original tracker values. We then multiplied that by 100 to get a percentage.
This was the percent correct we were out of 100%, so we had to use 100% and subtract the
percentage we had to get the error percentage.

Unfortunately, there were also many sources of error that could have skewed our results.
Some of the area that the experiment was conducted in matched the dark color of the balls that
were used. Each data-point in the segment of video where the ball crossed into the area had to be
put in manually, which could have skewed the data due to the difficulty of locating the ball. A
source of human error would be that the balls weren’t thrown up into the air at exactly ninety
degrees every time, and there was difficulty getting each throw to the same height consistently.
Tracker itself also had its limitations, including the fact that it would skew numbers significantly
for data like velocity and acceleration for some data points. For our calculations, we didn’t take
into account air resistance or turbulent forces acting on the ball while it was in the air, so it is
very likely that the data was affected by these variables.

Data and Calculations

Trial 4 oz 8 oz 14 oz 21 oz 32 oz

Vyi (m/s) 7.89 7.53 8.535 9.7889 9.127

Pyi (kgms) 1.09 2.07 3.387 5.843 8.280

Yi (m) 3.1 3.18 3.14 2.48 1.635

Ti (s) 1.6 1.77 1.809 1.3678 0.175

Tracker Vyt 0 0 0 0 0
(m/s)

Theo vyt -0.93 -1.78 0.28 0.84 0.07

(m/s)

Tracker Pyt 0 0 0 0 0
(kgms)
 Theo pyt 0.105 0.404 0.113 0.51 0.064
(kgms)

Tracker Vyf -9.35 -7.53 -7.66 -6.801 -9.939

(m/s)

Theo vyf -9.65 -9.13 -8.535 -9.439 -10.03

(m/s)

Tracker Pyf -1.06 -1.71 -3.041 -4.049 -9.017

(kgms)

Theo pyf -1.09 -2.07 -3.387 -5.6234 -8.26

(kgms)

% Error 2.76% 17.4% 10% 38% 9.1%

Sample Calculations:
Equations derived from vf = vi + Δt*a
Vi = initial velocity at the time of the ball’s release
Vt = velocity of the ball at the top of the curve before it begins to descend
Vf = velocity of the ball at the time it crosses the initial height where it was released

Calculation for theoretical velocity at the top of the throw:

Vt = vi + (tt - ti) * g

Calculation for final theoretical velocity:

Vf = vt + (tf - tt) * g

Percent Error Calculation for final velocity:

(Experimental vf /Theoretical vf ) x 100%

Percent Error for final momentum:

(Experimental pyf /Theoretical pyf ) x 100%

Momentum Graphs for Each Trial:

Figure 1: Momentum vs. Time Graph for the 4 oz (0.113 kg) Trial

Figure 2: Momentum vs Time Graph for the 8 oz (0.227 kg) trial

Figure 3: Momentum vs Time Graph for the 14 oz (0.397 kg) Trial

 Figure 4: Momentum vs Time Graph for the 21 oz (0.595 kg) Trial

Figure 5: Momentum vs Time Graph for the 32 oz (0.907 kg) Trial

Conclusion
The conclusion that we figured out is that our main experimental question is confirmed.
Using Tracker, to the best of our abilities, we found that the change in momentum continually
decreased the whole time from the start of the throw till the end. This was due to gravity acting
on the ball for the duration of the throw. It slowed down the ball until the velocity of the ball
moving upward matched the force gravity was putting upon it, and then it forced the ball
downward. As you can see from the percent error, our theoretical data was very similar to our
Tracker data for about half of the throws, but when the data wasn’t similar it was pretty far off.
Ranging from 2.76%(great percent error) all the way up to 38%(not too good percent error).