Mapua Institute of technology

Physics department

CONSERVATION OF MOMENTUM:
THE BALLISTIC PENDULUM
(EXPERIMENT 202)

de Ocampo, Tyrone Irwin V.

PHY11L/A7

October 30, 2015

INTRODUCTION:
A ballistic pendulum is a device for measuring a bullet's momentum, from which it is possible to calculate the
velocity and kinetic energy. Ballistic pendulums have been largely rendered obsolete by modern chronographs,
which allow direct measurement of the projectile velocity. It can be used to measure any transfer of momentum.
In a perfectly inelastic collision, a bullet is fired into the stationary pendulum, which captures the bullet and
absorbs its energy. The stationary pendulum now moves with a new velocity just after the collision. While not all
of the energy from the bullet is transformed into kinetic energy for the pendulum (some is used as heat and
deformation energy), the momentum of the system is conserved. By measuring the height of the pendulum's
swing, the potential energy of the pendulum when it stops can be measured. In the case of a pendulum total
mechanical energy is conserved. So kinetic energy of the pendulum (after firing) is fully converted to potential
energy. Thus the pendulum's initial velocity can be calculated. Using the law of conservation of momentum, the
velocity of the bullet can be computed.
Momentum is conserved during the collision, but kinetic energy is not. The momentum after the collision is
equal to the momentum before the collision:
Mb V0 = (Mb + Mc) v
Where Mb is the mass of the steel ball, V0 is the velocity of the steel ball, Mc is the mass of the pendulum, v
is the velocity of the pendulum and the steel ball after the collision. The kinetic energy of the pendulum and the
steel ball after the collision is converted completely to potential energy at the top of the swing:

(Mb + Mc) v^2 = (Mb + Mc) gh

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM/PURPOSE:

The objectives of this experiment is to use the principles of conservation of momentum and energy in
determining the velocity of the steel ball using a ballistic pendulum and to validate the initial velocity of the steel
ball through projectile motion.

HYPOTHESIS:
If the ball is fired at an initial velocity and embedded into the pendulum, the velocity of the ball will decrease
due to conservation of momentum.

MATERIALS:
Ballistic Pendulum with accessories
An apparatus that is used to measure the speed
of a bullet. It illustrates the principles involved in
conservation of energy and momentum.

Meter stick
It is a measurement tool that is one
meter long. It can be used directly
to measure in terms of centimeters and millimeters.

PROCEDURE:
In this experiment, the group used a set of ballistic pendulum with accessories .Before the group start
performing the first part of the experiment which is getting the initial velocity of the steel ball- ballistic method,
the group record the mass of the steel ball and the mass of the ballistic pendulum. Then, the group had the first
setup in such a way that the pendulum bob is horizontally set, approximately zero degrees from the vertical. It
must be set on the horizontal table to avoid some discrepancies. Afterwards, the group measure the initial height
of the pendulum bob from the base to the reference point. Then, the steel ball is fired towards the pendulum.
At this moment, the pendulum displaces at a certain angle. The group execute five trials and get its average or
mean angle. Having the mean value as the angle where the pendulum displaces, the group could determine the
vertical distance. It can be measured by a meter stick or by trigonometric applications since the angle and length
of the pendulums arm is known.
In order to determine the change in potential energy, the group compute for the change in height, whereas, the
initial height is subtracted from the final height. Using the value of increase in height, the group use the equation
to compute for velocity of the steel ball and the pendulum bob after the inelastic collision. At this
moment, the kinetic energy of the combined mass of steel ball and pendulum is converted to gravitational
potential energy as it goes up. Moving on to the last step, the group calculated for the balls velocity using
conservation of momentum.

The group proceed in the second part which was about getting also the initial velocity of the steel ball but
trajectory method was used. In this part, the principle of projectile motion is applied. It gave us an idea that the
group can readily determine the initial velocity by means of determining the vertical and horizontal distance from
the point where the ball was launched and the point where it landed. So, the group set the pendulum arm upward
that will be able to fire the steel ball horizontally. Also, the group set the spring gun at the end of the table
considering that no one and nothing will be damaged.
The group put a sheet of bond paper the estimated area where the group think the ball will land. The group
fired the steel ball five times and measure their respective horizontal distances and calculated for the average.
Finally, the group

measured the initial velocity using

DATA/RESULTS/OBSERVATIONS:
The group has performed the experiment through carefully following the procedures provided by the
laboratory manual. The experiment made use of a set of ballistic pendulum. In the first part which is the
determination of the initial velocity of the steel ball by ballistic method, initial firing velocity was determined
through using the concept conservation of momentum, which states that momentum before and after collision
remains the same. The group has justly defined the masses of the steel ball and the ballistic pendulum, initial and
final height of the pendulum which are essential in getting the initial firing velocity. The second part of the
experiment made use of another method of determining the initial velocity - by trajectory method. The group used
basic kinematic equations relating the range and the firing height to finally compute for the initial firing velocity.
Moreover, cautious actions had been observed by the group in this part most especially during the firing of the steel
ball like making sure no one was in the direction of the release. That was to assure that no one could accidentally
get hurt from the experiment. Lastly, the two values for the initial firing velocity provided by from the two methods
the groupre compared by taking their percentage of difference.
The basic principles applied in the experiment the groupre the law of conservation of momentum which
states that the total momentum of a closed system does not change and the law of conservation of energy which
says that the total energy of a closed system remains constant.
Table 1:
Observing the data gathered from Table 1, the group noticed that the resulting angles are almost equal through
the successive trials. Meaning, the change in potential energy of the ball and pendulum at the instant after impact is
equal to the kinetic energy of the pendulum and the steel ball at the instant after impact. Additionally, it also means
that the kinetic energy and the momentum is conserved and therefore will have the calculation of the steel balls
velocity just before impact, which is essentially its firing velocity.

Table 2:
Analyzing the data from Table 2, the values of horizontal distance are precise. The computed velocities of the
steel ball before collision from the two methods are quite close to each other which is the reason why the calculated
percent difference in Table 3 is 3.58 percent only.
Table 3:
The discrepancies came mostly on the second part of the experiment method because it is more on human error
like the misalignment of the launcher, misread of angles, not precise measurements on the height and horizontal
distance of the projectile motion and the initial and final height of the pendulum.

SOURCES OF ERRORS:
While the group are doing the experiment, the group encounter also some errors that affect our results. Here
are the some samples that might cause error to our experiment:
Improper using of the equipments
Improper measuring of the distance and etc.
Personal Errors
Improper positioning of pendulum
Despite of many errors, these errors has not a very significant effect to our experiment. It might contribute
some errors but these errors are not big enough to make our experiment failed to meet its objectives. For those
readers that will do this experiment, I recommend you to make sure to take precautions about it to lessen the
percentage of error in your results.
ANALYSIS & CONCLUSION:
The experiment shothe groupd that the law of conservation of momentum was widely applied in the
determination of a steel balls velocity. In the first part of the experiment, the steel ball which has initial momentum
is fired into a ballistic pendulum which is initially at rest therefore having zero momentum. After the pendulum
catches the ball, the law of conservation of energy are taken into account and they remained fixed together. They
both start to move and gain some height thus losing kinetic energy but gaining potential energy. The pendulum will
stop until it reached its maximum height and lost its kinetic energy transferring it to potential energy. In short, the
energy is conserved.

On the other hand, the trajectory method doesnt have much accurate results because of the human errors
especially in measurements. As a conclusion, Ballistic method is more suitable method in determining the steel
balls velocity in order to prove the principles of conservation of energy and momentum.
Going back to the objectives that was stated, the group could therefore conclude that this experiment could
verify that energy conservation and momentum conservation can be used with a ballistic pendulum to determine
the initial velocity of a projectile of the steel ball and also to validate the velocity of the steel ball by applying the
lessons learned in projectile motion. Although there are discrepancies in the results these are basically because of
human error in which researchers cannot avoid.