The ballistic pendulum is a classic example of a dissipative collision in which conservation of momentum can be used for analysis, but conservation of energy during the collision cannot be invoked because the energy goes into inaccessible forms such as internal energy. After the collision, conservation of energy can be used in the swing of the combined masses upward, since the gravitational potential energy is conservative.

Make teaching about electricity & magnetism easy with this complete study in static electricity, current electricity, magnetism, and electromagnetism. Do projects like building a foil electroscope, making a static electricity pendulum, creating magnets, and building an eddy current motor. The kit includes the Safe and Simple Electricity Experiments book plus materials and equipment to do most of the more than 100 science projects. Excellent explanations of experiment Read the full story »