SUNY Geneseo Department of Physics and Astronomy
Analytical Physics I Laboratory (Phys 124) Equipment Photographs
Momentum Conservation
This experiment has
some similarities to
the projectile motion
experiment. We will
use a video camera
to record the motion
of two pucks sliding
on an air table. The
air table is an almost
frictionless surface,
created by blowing
air through small
holes in its surface.
The pucks will be
given an initial velocity, either using mechanical launchers, or just pushing them
by hand. The grid you see is made of the air holes in the table, and we’ll use these
to help determine the position of the puck in each video frame.
A camera views the table from
above, allowing us to record the
x and y positions of each puck.
From these positions, we can
compute the velocity of each
puck before and after their
collision. A composite of
several frames just before (solid
arrows) and after (dashed
arrows) the collision might look
as shown here.