Question

The physics students wish to test the law of conservation of angular momentum
perform a completely inelastic collision between two discs. They attach disc 1 (from part 1) to the rotational sensor then give it a spin. After about 4 seconds, they drop disc 2 on top of disc 1. The whole process takes only ~10 seconds total.

Use the rate of change of the single disc angular velocity and the duration of the collision to find a corrected value of initial angular velocity (?′i) at the same instant we measure ?f. Calculate the angular momentum using ?′i and compare it with the final angular momentum. Does your result improve?

Rate of change of single disc angular velocity = -1.140 rad/s/s

Answer 1