Ballistic Pendulum :: Conservation of Energy and Momentum

Equipment: ballistic pendulum, mass balance and meter stick.

Introduction: A ballistic pendulum is used to determine the muzzle velocity of a ball shot out of a Projectile
Launcher. The laws of conservation of momentum and conservation of energy are used to derive the equation for
the muzzle velocity.

Theory: The ballistic pendulum has historically been used to measure the launch velocity of a high speed projectile.
In this experiment, a projectile launcher
res a steel ball (of mass mball) at a launch velocity, vo. The ball is caught by
a pendulum of mass mpend. After the momentum of the ball is transferred to the catcher-ball system, the pendulum
swings freely upwards, raising the center of mass of the system by a distance h. The pendulum rod is hollow to
keep its mass low, and most of the mass is concentrated at the end so that the entire system approximates a
simple pendulum. During the collision of the ball with the catcher, the total momentum of the system is conserved.
Thus the momentum of the ball just before the collision is equal to the momentum of the ball-catcher system
immediately after the collision: mballvo = Mv Eq. 1

where v is the speed of the catcher-ball system just after the collision, and
M = mball + mpend Eq. 2

During the collision, some of the ball's initial kinetic energy is converted into thermal energy. But after the collision,
as the pendulum swings freely upwards, we can assume that energy is conserved and that all of the kinetic energy
of the catcher-ball system is converted into the increase in gravitational potential energy.

½ Mv 2 = Mgh = MgL(1-cos ) Eq. 3

where g =9.8 m/s2, and the distance h is the vertical rise of the center of mass of the pendulum-ball system.

Combining equations (1) through (3), to eliminate v, yields

m ball  mpend
vo  2gh Eq. 4
mball

and from Figure 1 we have: h = L (1-cos ) Eq. 5

with L being the distance between the center of mass and the axis the rod L
rotates around, and  is the angle the rod rotates through before stopping.

Figure 1: Finding the height
c
h .
Note: Equation 1 (and thus Eq. 4) is really only valid if all the mass is concentrated at the point where the
m
ball strikes the target. Although the rod mass is small, it is not negligible, and the 100g ballast mass is .
about 3 cm beyond the impact point. An exact treatment of this system will have to wait until after you have
studied rotation and angular momentum. The ballast mass has been chosen so that the catcher behaves
almost as if all the mass were at the center of the catcher

1. Find the mass of the projectile ball (m b) and the mass of the pendulum catcher arm (m c). Do not lose the screw
that holds the pendulum arm to the device!
2. Fire the projectile into the pendulum catcher 5 times and measure/calculate the change in height.
3. Use any spreadsheet to calculate a ‘muzzle velocity’ for each trial and compute the mean muzzle velocity
4. Record your mean muzzle velocity along with the ID of your pendulum in the lab archive table

Note: See Example 6.5 The Ballistic Pendulum in your textbook, p 172

Remark on text Remark: TOTAL Energy is conserved; however, KINETIC energy is NOT conserved in the initial
collision and neither is MECHANICAL energy conserved in the initial collision.