Virtual Exhibit: Newton's Cradle
Have you ever seen the big Newton’s Cradle at the Discovery Center? Today we’re bringing the museum to you, with a virtual exhibit! Get up close and personal with the conservation of momentum and energy in this video demo.
This exhibit consists of a series of pool balls in a row. Each ball is suspended from a frame overhead.
Watch what happens when we lift and drop one of the balls at the end…
Here’s the same action from another viewpoint, and in slow motion:
What’s happening?
A Newton's cradle demonstrates
conservation of momentum and energy using a series of swinging spheres.
Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can change forms.
The potential energy of the ball held up in the air is transferred into kinetic energy, which moves through each ball, swinging up the final ball at the end of the sequence before bringing it back. The momentum of the first ball is not lost, but transferred through the other balls.
