Physics of Sports?
Physics of Sports??
In this project, we had to analyze two objects colliding with off of each other. We would want the collision to be off the ground in order to avoid calculating for friction. For our project, we chose to collide a basketball with another basketball, a tennis ball, and a lacrosse ball. We needed to figure out if the momentum was conserved as well as if the kinetic energy was conserved. Depending on the conservation of kinetic energy, we would then determine if the collision was elastic or inelastic, as well as the percentage of inelasticity the collision is.
In order to get all of this data, we took 3 videos of each collision, found the averages of all of them, and then charted down this data. We had a couple of hiccups along the way as we almost broke gravity, but then realized that the video we took was really bad quality. We then using a few equations in order to determine momentum, kinetic energy, and a kinetic energy percentage convertor in order to get our values.
Concepts/Equations
Velocity - the speed of an object going in a certain direction
v = Δd/Δv
Momentum - how much "direction and speed" an object has
p = mv
Impulse - the overall effect the collision has during a given amount of time
ΔJ= F*ΔT
Collision - when objects come together and make some sort of mutual reaction, exerting a certain force on the other object
Kinetic Energy - the capacity an object has to do some sort of work
0.5(m)(v^2)
Elasticity - the ability of an object to return to its normal state when being deformed
Kfinal/Kinitial
Conservation of Momentum - momentum must be conserved no matter what the collision is
m1v1 + m2v2 = m1v1 + m2v2
Conservation of Energy - no energy can be destroyed, lost, or created in any time
0.5(m)(v(final)^2) - 0.5(m)(v(initial)^2)
Reflection
In this project, I was able to experiment with sports, which is something I really like to do as a hobby. Two things that I felt like I did well in this project was conscientious learner and creativity. Both of these went hand in hand as we had to create a fun yet productive project, which we accomplished both with ease. Using the different mediums of balls, we were able to create an entertaining yet effective project, as well as getting all the math done in the end. We also learned a lot from this project, realizing that we couldn't break gravity (just yet), and that we had to figure out different ways to get to our end result.
Two things I need to work on for next time are communication and character. For me, these two go hand in hand again, as we weren't in sync sometimes, as we sometimes had arguments for who has to do what calculation. We also were rushing as we were getting closer to the due date. We also weren't able to work on this at home as much as I would've liked to so that we wouldn't of had to worry about it during school that much. Otherwise, I felt like this project went very well for how much time we had and preparation in general.