Linear Momentum Lab Activity
When you broke the string on the empty Newton car, the car should not have moved. Earlier, you calculated the momentum of the Newton car before you broke the string and found its momentum to be zero before you broke the string. Now, that you have broken the string, the Newton car is still not moving, and so its linear momentum is still equal to zero.
Thus, the linear momentum of the Newton car before you broke the string is equal to the linear momentum of the Newton car after you broke the string. This brings us to the Law of Conservation of Linear Momentum, which states that for a closed system (no outside forces acting on the system), the total linear momentum of the system will always remain unchanged. Thus, our closed system (the Newton car), had a total momentum of zero before we broke the string and had a total momentum of zero after we broke the string. |
|