One week in lab, you’re given a spring-loaded bar that can be used to strike a metal ball. Your assignment is to measure what size impulse the bar delivers to the ball. You and your lab partner decide to place several balls of different mass on the edge of the lab table, use the striker to launch them horizontally, and measure the horizontal distance to where each ball hits the floor.

a. Let the table height be h and the horizontal distance traveled by the ball be its range R. Find an expression for the range. The range depends on h, the ball’s mass m, and the impulse J.

b. What should you graph the measured range against to get a linear graph whose slope is related to J?

c. After measuring the table height to be 1.5 m, you and your partner acquire the following data:

Mass...........................(g) Range (cm)

100...................................247

150...................................175

200...................................129

250...................................98

Draw an appropriate graph of the data and, from the slope of the best-fit line, determine the impulse