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Matt Poirier
Homework Statement
Say you're bowling and you roll the ball down the lane. The bowling ball has just knocked the first bowling pin forward and that pin's forward velocity is now much larger than the bowling ball's velocity before their impact. How can the pin travel forward faster than the ball was moving without violating conservation of momentum?
Answer Choices:
- A. Since the pin has much less mass than the ball, the pin can have a larger forward velocity than the ball and still have less forward momentum than the ball had before their impact.
- B. During their impact, the ball transfers both momentum and energy to the pin and those two quantities add together to give the pin a very high forward velocity.
- C. The conservation of momentum applies only to objects that are moving in opposite directions. As long as the ball and pin move in the same direction, they aren't constrained by the conservation of momentum.
- D. The conservation of momentum applies only to an isolated object. When two objects touch, their total combined momentum is no longer a conserved quantity.
The bowling ball hits another bowling pin and knocks that pin into the air. The pin travels in an arc before crashing into the back of the bowling lane. While this flying pin isn't touching anything, which of its physical quantities is constant? Note: assume that there is no air resistance.
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A. The pin's momentum is constant. -
B. The pin's speed is constant. -
C. The pin's velocity is constant. -
D. The pin's angular momentum is constant.
According to bowling regulations, a newly constructed bowling lane must be flat and level to within a 1/25th of an inch. If the lane had significant hills and valleys in its surface, or if it were tilted, how would those defects affect the bowling ball's motion on the lane?
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A. The ball's velocity would point in the direction that reduced its total potential energy as quickly as possible. -
B. The ball would accelerate in the direction that reduced its total potential energy as quickly as possible. -
C. The ball would travel directly downhill on each defect and would follow a complicated path to the pins. -
D. necessarily travel directly downhill.
Homework Equations
Momentum = mass * velocity
The Attempt at a Solution
I believe the answers are A, A, and B, respectively, but I am not sure.