Study of the Ballistic Pendulum

Introduction:

The study of the ballistic pendulum began with Benjamin Robins in the early 1700’s. Robins was an English mathematician and writer on ballistics, and used this testing apparatus for the evaluation of the strength of gunpowder and the measurement of air resistance (Calvert, 2006). At the time of the American Revolution a loyalist named Benjamin Thompson also utilized and expanded the use to the ballistic pendulum. He further evaluated the efficiency of gunpowder. He fired from a small cannon, into a heavy suspended target and found the speed of the bullet by finding the rise of the target (Stern, 2006). The study of the ballistic pendulum is quite unique and incorporates many important physical laws. For this reason, peers interested in physics and ballistics may have an interest in this experiment. Peers interested especially in the study of energy and momentum would have the most interest in this data.

While analyzing the data found from a ballistic pendulum experiment, the Law of Conservation of Mechanical Energy and the Law of Conservation of Momentum both need to be utilized. The involvement of both of these physical laws struck the group’s immediate interest because of the pertinence to what had