Introduction

You may have learned that a moving object possesses kinetic energy. Momentum is another property of an object, related to its mass and velocity, which is useful to describe its behavior. Momentum, p, is the product of the mass and velocity of an object, p = mv.

You may have learned that an external force produces a change in the momentum of an object. If we consider as our system two carts that undergo a collision, then any forces they exert on one another are internal to the system. In this experiment you will examine the momentum of both carts before and after collisions to see what effect, if any, these forces have on the momentum of a system.

Objectives