Ballistic pendulum

[ahmedelshfie]

This fillowing applet is Ballistic pendulum
Created by prof Hwang Modified by Ahmed
Original project Ballistic pendulum

This is a standard textbook problem:

A bullet of mass m and speed v embeds in a block of mass M suspended by a string.
The block and bullet, of total mass m+M, then moves as a pendulum and the maximum height it reaches can easily be measured. This apparatus ca be used to measure the speed of the bullet. In this applet, you can change the initial speed and find of the maximum height it reaches. Does it get heighter with heigher bullet speed? What if the bullet pass through the box?

The force between bullet and the box is assumed to be a fixed value in this simulation.
Is this a good assumption?

Embed a running copy of this simulation
<applet code='users.br.ahmed.pendulumbllstic_pkg.pendulumbllsticApplet.class' archive='http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/ntnujava/ejsuser/37048/ejs_pendulumbllstic.jar' name='pendulumbllstic6492' id='pendulumbllstic6492' width='621' height='334' mayscript=true><param name='draggable' value='true'></applet>
Embed a running copy link(show simulation in a popuped window)
<a href='http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/ntnujava/msg.php?smfejs=6492' target='smfejs'>Run simulation</a>

Full screen applet or Problem viewing java?Add http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/ to exception site list
Press the Alt key and the left mouse button to drag the applet off the browser and onto the desktop. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Taiwan License

• Please feel free to post your ideas about how to use the simulation for better teaching and learning.
• Post questions to be asked to help students to think, to explore.
• Upload worksheets as attached files to share with more users.

Let's work together. We can help more users understand physics conceptually and enjoy the fun of learning physics!

[ahmedelshfie]

A ballistic pendulum is a device for measuring a bullet's momentum, from which it is possible to calculate the velocity and kinetic energy. Ballistic pendulums have been largely rendered obsolete by modern chronographs, which allow direct measurement of the projectile velocity.
Although the ballistic pendulum is considered obsolete, it remained in use for a significant length of time and led to great advances in the science of ballistics.
The ballistic pendulum is still found in physics classrooms today, because of its simplicity and usefulness in demonstrating properties of momentum and energy.
Unlike other methods of measuring the speed of a bullet, the basic calculations for a ballistic pendulum do not require any measurement of time, but rely only on measures of mass and distance.
In addition its primary uses of measuring the velocity of a projectile or the recoil of a gun, the ballistic pendulum can be used to measure any transfer of momentum. For example, a ballistic pendulum was used by physicist C. V. Boys to measure the elasticity of golf balls,and by physicist Peter Guthrie Tait to measure the effect that spin had on the distance a golf ball traveled.

[ahmedelshfie]

History
The ballistic pendulum was invented in 1742 by English mathematician Benjamin Robins (1707–1751), and published in his book New Principles of Gunnery, which revolutionized the science of ballistics, as it provided the first way to accurately measure the velocity of a bullet.
Robins used the ballistic pendulum to measure projectile velocity in two ways. The first was to attach the gun to the pendulum, and measure the recoil. Since the momentum of the gun is equal to the momentum of the ejecta, and since the projectile was (in those experiments) the large majority of the mass of the ejecta, the velocity of the bullet could be approximated. The second, and more accurate method, was to directly measure the bullet momentum by firing it into the pendulum. Robins experimented with musket balls of around one ounce in mass (30 g), while other contemporaries used his methods with cannon shot of one to three pounds (0.5 to 1.4 kg).
Robins' original work used a heavy iron pendulum, faced with wood, to catch the bullet. Modern reproductions, used as demonstrations in physics classes, generally use a heavy weight suspended by a very fine, lightweight arm, and ignore the mass of the pendulum's arm. Robins' heavy iron pendulum did not allow this, and Robins' mathematical approach was slightly more complex. He used the period of oscillation and mass of the pendulum (both measured with the bullet included) to calculate the rotational inertia of the pendulum, which was then used in the calculations. Robins also used a length of ribbon, loosely gripped in a clamp, to measure the travel of the pendulum. The pendulum would draw out a length of ribbon equal to the chord of pendulum's travel.
The first system to supplant ballistic pendulums with direct measures of projectile speed was invented in 1808, and used a rapidly rotating shaft of known speed with two paper disks on it; the bullet was fired through the disks, parallel to the shaft, and the angular difference in the points of impact provided an elapsed time over the distance between the disks. A direct electromechanical clockwork measure appeared in 1840, with a spring-driven clock started and stopped by electromagnets, whose current was interrupted by the bullet passing through two meshes of fine wires, again providing the time to traverse the given distance.

Data and images from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistic_pendulum#cite_note-eb1911-1

[ahmedelshfie]

Here is a modified version from Ballistic pendulum.

Embed a running copy of this simulation
<applet code='users.br.ahmed.Ballisticpendulumedit_pkg.BallisticpendulumeditApplet.class' archive='http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/ntnujava/ejsuser/37048/ejs_Ballisticpendulumedit.jar' name='Ballisticpendulumedit6848' id='Ballisticpendulumedit6848' width='584' height='533' mayscript=true><param name='draggable' value='true'></applet>
Embed a running copy link(show simulation in a popuped window)
<a href='http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/ntnujava/msg.php?smfejs=6848' target='smfejs'>Run simulation</a>

Full screen applet or Problem viewing java?Add http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/ to exception site list
Press the Alt key and the left mouse button to drag the applet off the browser and onto the desktop. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Taiwan License

• Please feel free to post your ideas about how to use the simulation for better teaching and learning.
• Post questions to be asked to help students to think, to explore.
• Upload worksheets as attached files to share with more users.

Let's work together. We can help more users understand physics conceptually and enjoy the fun of learning physics!