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course Phy 232
Experiment kinmodel_03: Equipartition of energy and the direction of disorder to (increasing or decreasing)Observe the first several seconds of the simulation at the 'slow' default speed. You will see how the particles initially are all moving in or very close to the x direction, with little or no y component. Note the x and y kinetic energies, displayed near the top of the screen.
* Observe what happens to the directions of motion of the particles as they start colliding.
As some particles collide, they pick up speed, while others slow down (some nearly stopping) after collision.
* Observe what happens to the x and y kinetic energies.
The x and y kinetic energies are very sparatic at times, varying from around 900 to 1500, while at other times they are nearly constant for a moment.
* Is the system more organized at the beginning of the simulation or after a couple of minutes?
The systme seems alot more organized after a couple of minutes, as many of the particles have greatly slowed down
* If the x and y kinetic energies were averaged for 100 years, starting a few minutes after the simulation began, which do you think would be greater?
I think the y kinetic energies would be greater if it were averaged for 100 years.
Run the simulation in this manner several times, and each time determine how long it takes before the total y kinetic energy is first greater than the total x kinetic energy. Report your results.
Trial 1: 19.16 seconds
Trial 2: 19.42 seconds
Trial 3: 22.12 seconds
average: 20.23 seconds
Now take some data:
* Running at the fastest default speed, stop the simulation with the pause/break key every few seconds, keeping your eyes closed for at least 2 seconds before stopping the motion.
* Write down the x and y kinetic energies each time.
* Do this at least 30 times.
* Find the average of all your x and all your y kinetic energies.
* Do you believe the difference in the averages is significant, in that the direction that has the higher average will always tend to have the higher average every time the simulation is run?
(KEx,KEy):
(1538,1375)
(1454,1459)
(1218,1695)
(1285,1628)
(1580,1333)
(1476,1437)
(1794,1119)
(1590,1323)
(1456,1457)
(1957,956)
(1433,1480)
(1609,1304)
(1955,958)
(2125,788)
(1531,1383)
(1611,1303)
(1239,1675)
(1237,1676)
(1381,1533)
(1488,1425)
(1501,1413)
(1255,1658)
(1193,1721)
(1077,1837)
(1248,1666)
(1815,1099)
(1778,1136)
(1566,1349)
Average KEx=1413
Average KEy=1306.2
The averages aren't considerably far about (about 100), but I think it is noteable that the KEy values went below 1000 on several occasions, while the KEx did not. However, I thought this would have a bigger impact on the averages than it did. Perhaps if more trials were taken then yes, I do think that it would be reasonable to say that KEx will have a higher average than KEy on a reasonably consistent basis.
(1624,1290)
(1294,1621)
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&#Your work on this lab exercise is good. Let me know if you have questions. &#
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