Your name: _____________________

Print this page, record your answers on it, and show it to your lab TF at the start of your lab session. In the experiment you will analyze several collisions - this time the collisions involve a ball undergoing straight-line motion colliding with a system that is free to rotate. The collisions are completely inelastic, so the ball rotates with the system after the collision.

We'll analyze a similar collision here.

A wooden block of mass M rests on a frictionless horizontal surface. It is attached to one end of a rigid rod of length L. The rod has negligible mass, and is pivoted so that it is free to rotate about its other end. A bullet of mass m and speed v traveling parallel to the horizontal surface and perpendicular to the rod hits the block and becomes embedded in it. Note that all answers should be given in terms of m, v, M, and/or L only.

1. What is the angular momentum of the bullet-block system about the pivot?

2. What is the linear velocity of the system just after the collision?

3. How much kinetic energy is lost in the collision?

4. If the length of the rod were doubled to 2L, how would that change your answer to question 1?

5. If the length of the rod were doubled to 2L, how would that change your answer to question 2?