Research Training

School of Physics, Faculty of Sciences

Industrial University of Santander
We build future

Ballistic Pendulum
Cristian Alberto Rojas Ortiz. 2215140 – Student - Industrial Engineering.
Loren Daniela Ramírez Estupiñán. 2215130 - Student - Industrial Engineering.
Luna Sofia Jaimes Murillo. 2215118 – Student - Civil Engineering
Wilmer Gerardo Jaimes Ortiz. 2215114 - Student - Civil Engineering.

“I can calculate the movement of celestial bodies, but not the madness of people.”
Isaac Newton

SUMMARY

In this laboratory practice an experiment was performed in which the principles of conservation of
energy and linear motion quantity were put into practice to find the exit velocity of a sphere (pellet)
fired horizontally from a projectile launcher.

The pendulum has two modes of operation. When the sphere is thrown against the pendulum at a
certain velocity v, it may simply hit the pendulum or, alternatively, be lodged inside it. In this second
case, due to the change of mass of the final system, the ball-pendulum collision will be inelastic. To
analyze the system in the second assumption we cannot equate the kinetic energy of the pendulum
after the collision with the kinetic energy of the sphere just before, since the collision is inelastic and
energy is not conserved. A quantity that is conserved is the angular momentum with respect to the
axis of rotation. This quantity will be used to relate the energy of the pendulum to the velocity of the
ball before impact.

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School of Physics, Faculty of Sciences
Industrial University of Santander
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INTRODUCTION

The document is made up of six components: Methodology, where the procedure and equipment will
be described; Data treatment, the use of the data obtained in the laboratory will be given; Analysis of
the results, the interpretation that will be given to the results of the treatment; Conclusions, where we
will have a final premise of reasoning taking into account the previous points; References, where the
bibliography used for the preparation of this report will be cited.

This report presents the results and conclusions of the practice carried out in the laboratory, explaining
how each of its components was determined. A bullet is fired horizontally against a block suspended
from a rope. This device is called a ballistic pendulum and is used to determine the velocity of the
bullet by measuring the angle that the pendulum deflects after the bullet has been embedded in it.

The quantity of motion (linear momentum), is a vector-type derived physical quantity that
describes the motion of a body in any mechanical theory. The principle of conservation of
energy relates both energies and states that the sum of both energies, the potential energy and
the kinetic energy of a body or a physical system, remains constant. This sum is known as
the mechanical energy of the body or physical system.

METHODOLOGY

The following elements were used for the practice: balance, launcher, pendulum, trap and
masses of different sizes.

• The maximum angle at which the pendulum comes to a stop is determined by shooting a
pellet from a cannon aimed at the end of the pendulum rod from which a mass is hanging.
The same procedure will be recorded and performed again, varying the mass hanging from
the pendulum.
• In this phase, the same step as above will be performed, varying the length of the
pendulum.
• In this phase the respective report will be made where the indirect velocity will be
determined, which is the one that occurs in the pendulum and the one of the parabolic shot,
which corresponds to the direct velocity.

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School of Physics, Faculty of Sciences
Industrial University of Santander
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Image 1. Ballistic Pendulum

DATA TREATMENT

Table 1. Indirect method data..

𝑨𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝑷𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒖𝒍𝒖𝒎 𝒘𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑯𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕

𝑻𝒆𝒔𝒕
[°] [𝑵] [𝑵] [𝒎]
1 13 1.369 0.00781
2 9 1.870 0.096 0.00375
3 7 2.421 0.00227

Table 2. Direct method data.

𝑻𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑯𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 [𝒎] 𝑯𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒛𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 [𝒎]

4 0.98 2.566

Table 3. Data to determine the variation margin.

𝑻𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑬𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝑬𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒅𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝑽𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒏

𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 [𝒎⁄𝒔] 𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 [𝒎⁄𝒔] [%]
1 5.97 5.70 4.73
2 5.54 5.70 2.82
3 5.53 5.70 2.98

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Industrial University of Santander
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DATA ANALYSIS

From the data treatment it was possible to observe the variation margin of the velocities and
to highlight that the values of the indirect velocities, realized by means of the ballistic
pendulum are very similar to the direct velocity, obtained by parabolic shot, ideally they were
exact, but this is due to the precision and the error that the students have at the moment of
realizing the experiment, among other problems and influential circumstances at the moment
of finding this margin.

In the tables are the data found experimentally, the first (ballistic pendulum) found through
the momentum, since it is understood that the momentum before will be equal to the
momentum after the collision with the pendulum and the second (parabolic shot) using a
projectile at zero degrees, knowing its height and distance.

CONCLUSIONS

We learned how to find the initial velocity of a system by two different methods and to
demonstrate the initial velocity of a system by means of the conservation of linear
momentum. On the other hand, the behavior of the systems before and after the collision was
strictly analyzed with their respective energies and what can be said about those energies,
from there, we can conclude that in perfectly inelastic collisions the amount of motion (linear
momentum) will be maintained before and after the collision, because a part of the kinetic
energy is transferred to another mass.

References
• Khan Academy. (s.f.). Obtenido de Khan Academy:
https://es.khanacademy.org/science/physics/linear-momentum/elastic-and-inelastic-
collisions/a/what-are-elastic-and-inelastic-
collisions#:~:text=Un%20choque%20inel%C3%A1stico%20es%20en,le%20transfi
ere%20a%20algo%20m%C3%A1s.
• VALVERDE, M. Á. (06 de Febrero de 2020). Fisica Comprimida . Obtenido de
Fisica Comprimida : https://blogs.ugr.es/physics-zip/conservacion-de-la-energia-en-
choques/