Collision Course
What is a collision?
The term for a change in an object's shape caused by a force.
What is deformation?
A push or pull that happens when two objects are touching is known as this.
What is a contact force?
This is the energy an object has because it is moving.
What is kinetic energy?
A student watches a collision and writes, “The red ball moved backward after it was hit.” This statement is this type of scientific thinking because it describes something the student directly noticed.
What is an observation?
A moving basketball hits a wall that is not moving
The collision type is...
What is a Type A collision?
A rubber ball is squeezed but returns to its original shape when the force is removed. The ball experienced this type of deformation.
What is elastic deformation?
Two students push against each other with equal forces, but neither student moves. The forces acting on each student can be described this way.
What are balanced forces?
This term describes the greatest amount of force reached during a collision.
What is peak force?
After watching a collision, a student says, “The ball probably moved farther because more energy was transferred to it.” This statement is this type of scientific thinking because it explains something that was observed.
What is an inference?
A stationary bowling pin is struck by a moving bowling ball
This collision type is...
What is a Type B collision?
A plastic ruler is bent and stays permanently bent after the force is removed. The ruler has been deformed beyond this point.
What is its elastic limit?
A cart is pushed and begins moving. Because its motion changed, the forces acting on the cart can be described this way.
What are unbalanced forces?
Two identical balls are moving. Ball A travels at 2 m/s, while Ball B travels at 5 m/s. This ball has more kinetic energy.
What is Ball B?
A scientist tests how the speed of a toy car affects a collision. The scientist deliberately changes the car's speed between trials. The car's speed is this type of variable.
What is the independent variable?
Nero and Alex ran into each other dropping their books
This collision type is...
What is a Type C collision?
An object is bent farther and farther until it cracks or splits apart. The point at which this happens is called this.
What is the breaking point?
During a collision, Cart A exerts a force of 25 N to the right on Cart B. Assuming both carts didn't move after the collision, this is the force Cart B exerts back on Cart A.
What is 25 N to the left?
Two identical carts crash into a wall. Cart A is moving slowly while Cart B is moving much faster. This cart would be expected to produce the greater peak force during its collision.
What is Cart B?
A scientist changes the speed of a toy car and measures the peak force during each collision. The peak force is this type of variable.
What is the dependent variable?
A moving skateboard hits a stationary box
1. Collision type for skateboard
2. Collision type for box
Two identical objects made from different materials experience the same type of collision. One returns to its original shape while the other stays permanently bent. This property was exceeded by the object that stayed bent.
What is the elastic limit?
A small moving ball collides with a much larger stationary ball.
During the collision, the small ball experiences a peak force of 40 N.
Draw the forces acting on each ball during the collision using arrows.
Answer on board
Consider these two collision systems:
System A: A moving cart collides with a stationary wall.
System B: The same moving cart, traveling at the same speed, collides head-on with another moving cart.
Assuming the carts are identical, this system has more total kinetic energy before the collision and would be expected to produce greater peak forces.
What is System B?
A scientist wants to determine whether the mass of a ball affects how far another ball moves after a collision.
For every trial, the scientist:
These are the independent variable, dependent variable, and one controlled variable in the experiment.
What are mass (independent), distance traveled (dependent), and speed (controlled)?