If the mass of each ball were the same, but the velocity of ball A were twice as much as ball B, what do you think would happen to the final velocity of each ball after the collision? To answer this question, create a hypothesis in the form of an if-then statement. The “if” is the independent variable, or the thing that is being changed. The “then” is the dependent variable, or what you will measure as the outcome.
Hypothesis: If the mass of each ball is the same, but the velocity of ball A is twice as much as ball B, then after the collision, the final velocity of ball A will be smaller than its initial velocity, while the final velocity of ball B will be larger than its initial velocity.
Hypothesis: If the mass of each ball is the same, but the velocity of ball A is twice as much as ball B, then the final velocity of ball A after the collision will be higher than the final velocity of ball B after the collision.
Explanation: In this hypothesis, we are stating that the independent variable is the velocity of ball A, while the dependent variable is the final velocity of each ball after the collision. To verify this hypothesis, we can conduct an experiment where we set up a controlled collision between two balls of equal mass (such as billiard balls) with different initial velocities. By measuring the final velocities of each ball after the collision, we can determine if the hypothesis is supported or rejected.