Question

Students are completing a lab in which they let a lab cart roll down a ramp. The students record the mass of the cart, the height of the ramp, and the velocity at the bottom of the ramp. The students then calculate the momentum of the cart at the bottom of the ramp.
Which trial’s cart has the greatest momentum at the bottom of the ramp?


trial 1, because this trial has the greatest velocity

trial 2, because this trial has the greatest ramp height

trial 3, because this trial has a large mass and a large velocity

trial 4, because this trial has the greatest mass

Answer 1

Answer:

trial 3, because this trial has a large mass and a large velocity

Explanation:

The momentum of each cart at the bottom of the ramp can be calculated as follows:

$p=mv$

where

m is the mass of the cart

v is the velocity of the cart at the bottom of the ramp

Let's use this formula to calculate the momentum of each cart:

- cart 1: $p=mv=(200 kg)(6.5 m/s)=1300 kg m/s$

- cart 2: $p=mv=(220 kg)(5.0 m/s)=1100 kg m/s$

- cart 3: $p=mv=(240 kg)(6.4 m/s)=1536 kg m/s$

- cart 4: $p=mv = (260 kg)(4.8 m/s)=1248 kg m/s$

So, we see that cart 3 is the one with largest momentum.