ANGELES UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION

College of Engineering and Architecture

NAME OF STUDENT: Gabriel Iverson D. Cunan

GROUP NUMBER: DATE PERFORMED: 5/09/21
COURSE CODE: PHY01 DATE SUBMITTED: 5/09/21
COURSE TITLE: Physics for Engineers YEAR AND SECTION: BSCE-1
LAB. INSTRUCTOR: GRADE:

LABORATORY EXPERIMENT NO. 6

LAW OF CONSERVATION OF MOMENTUM

OBJECTIVE
• To determine the relationship between the change in momentum and the change in
velocity of a moving object.

DISCUSSION:
In addition to the concepts of force, mass, and acceleration, there are other physical
quantities that are of importance in dynamic situations. One of these quantities is momentum,
which, for a material object, is defined to be “the product of the object’s mass and its velocity.”

The law of conservation of linear momentum state, “if there is no external force applied
to a system, then the total linear momentum of that system remains constant in time.”

MATERIALS:
• 10 pcs marbles of the same size
• ruler
• 2 pcs metersticks
• 2 pcs support for the meterstick

PROCEDURE:

1. Use two metersticks to hold a row of 6 marbles.

2. Take one marble. Using the groove of a ruler, let it roll down the ramp until it hits the
row of marbles. Observe what happens. Now allow a single marble to hit the row of
marbles with greater speed by releasing it from a greater height. Record your observation.
3. Repeat step 2 four times, adding one marble with each repetition. What is your
observation in each case? Enter your data in the Data Sheet.
DATA SHEET:

No. of marbles released

No. of marbles launched
from the row
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4

QUESTIONS:

1. When one marble is allowed to hit the row of marbles, how many were released from the
row?

One marble was released from the row.

2. When two, three and four marbles were allowed to strike the row of marbles, how many
marbles were released?

When there was 2(two) marbles placed to hit the row, approximately 2(two) marbles
were released

When there was 3(three) marbles placed to hit the row, approximately 3(three) marbles
were released

When there was 4(four) marbles placed to hit the row, approximately 4(four) marbles
were released

3. What do the results indicate? What can you say about the momentum of the marbles
before and after the collision?

My observations based on the results indicate that, the number of marbles that are placed
to hit the stack is equal to the number of marbles that are released from the stack.
Basically, the amount of mass that is exerted upon something will be conserved, releasing
away the exact amount of mass that is discharged.
 4. How is the law of conservation of momentum observed in the activity? Explain briefly?

Based from my observations in the activity, when one ball hit the stack, exactly one ball
was also released from the stack, the amount of momentum is neither created nor
destroyed like in the law of conservation of momentum. When the ball hits the stack, it
doesn’t change the amount of momentum as it remains constant.

5. A ball with a mass of 25gm, moving with a velocity of 30cm/sec southward, collides with
another ball whose mass is 10gm and moving with a velocity of 15cm/sec southward.
After the collision, the 25gm ball has a velocity of 22 m/sec southward. What is the
velocity of the 10gm ball?

Given:
m1 = 25 gm = 0.025 kg
𝑚 𝑐𝑚
v1 = 30 𝑠 = 30 𝑠
m2 = 10 gm = 0.010 kg
v2 =?
m1v1 + m2v2 = m1v1 + m2v2
𝑐𝑚 𝑐𝑚 𝑐𝑚
(0.025kg) (30 𝑠 ) + (0.010kg) (15 𝑠 ) = (0.025kg) (2200 𝑠 ) + (0.010kg) (v2)
𝑐𝑚
v2 = -5410 𝑠

CONCLUSION:

Based from the results and my own observation of the activity, I’ve concluded that this
activity provides you a clear and visual example of the law of conservation of momentum. Given
the marbles, when they hit the stack, marbles from the end would be released from the stack, the
more marbles you hit, the more marbles are released. The results I got from my activity gave me
a 1:1 ratio on the marbles hit and released, this proves the law of conservation of momentum in
which there are no momentum lost when the marble collided with the rest since there are marbles
released equivalent to the marbles hit.