How would I used error propagation to determine whether my observations of a collision conform to theory?
- Friday Oct 30,2009 02:53 PM
- By diddy
- In Others
How would I used error propagation to determine whether my observations of a collision conform to theory?
Theory says that momentum (p) is conserved therefore p initial and final should be equal.
Here is my experimental data:
pinitial0.23 N*s
Pfinal0.16 N*s
?p0.07 N*s
how do I used error propagation to answer the question, "Do your results conform to theory?"
Collision Theory, Error Propagation, Momentum, P0, Theory Theory
One Comment
According to Theory, Conservation of Momentum leads to the fact that pinitial and pfinal are equal.
In other words pinitial - pfinal = pfinal-pinitial = 0
Your experimental data gives an error of 0.07 Ns. which implies that the data you have obtained has an error of +/- 0.07 Ns. Your conservation of momentum may be either in excess(+) or in dearth(-) of a value equivalent to 0.07 Ns.
Check Conservation of Momentum:
Calculate pinitial - pfinal = 0.23 -0.16 = 0.07 Ns
Calculate pfinal-pinitial = 0.16 - 0.23 = -0.07 Ns
In either case it is observed that the conservation of momentum of your experiments, from the calculations is off by 0.07Ns which is exactly what error propogation explains with its ?p = 0.07 N*s
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