course PHY232
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.
Response: The direction of motion after particle collision is dependent on the angle between the center-of-masses.
Observe what happens to the x and y kinetic energies.
Response: The X and Y Kinetic Energies are conserved through though-out the elastic collision process.
Is the system more organized at the beginning of the simulation or after a couple of minutes?
Response: The system path is sinuosidal, it is not anymore organized at the beginning of the simulaton than the end of the simulation.
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?
Response: If the system is contained within a perfectr vacuum, the average kinetic energy will not change.
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.
Response: The Y-Kinetic energy is not greater of less than the X-Kinetic energy.
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.
Response:
Average X = 254.7
Average Y = 261.8
Less than 3% difference between the 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?
Response: The averages are NOT significant. I ran the simulation a second time and the Y-average was slighlty higher than the X-average.
&#Your work looks very good. Let me know if you have any questions. &#