Calculate the Impulse Delivered to the Lab Cart

What other measurement is necessary to calculate the impulse delivered to the lab cart?

To calculate the impulse delivered to the lab cart, the student needs to measure the velocity of the cart after it hits the wall in addition to the mass of the cart and the velocity of the cart before it hits the wall.

Explanation:

Impulse is a vector quantity that represents the change in momentum of an object. In the context of the lab cart hitting the wall, impulse is equal to the force exerted on the cart by the wall multiplied by the time the cart is in contact with the wall. It can also be calculated using the formula Impulse = change in momentum. Since mass is constant, change in momentum is equal to mass multiplied by the final velocity minus the initial velocity.

Therefore, knowing the mass and initial velocity of the cart is not enough to calculate the impulse delivered to the cart. The final velocity, which is the velocity of the cart after it hits the wall, must also be measured to complete the necessary data for the calculation.

So, the answer to the question is: the velocity of the cart after it hits the wall is the additional measurement necessary to calculate the impulse delivered to the lab cart.

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