The low friction of the air track makes it usefull for the following demonstrations:
Inertia with low friction.
Two objects pushing on one another. (use a string to hold a compressed spring, burn the string, see the result)
Elastic and inelastic collisions.
A wireless camera can be mounted on one cart to show the frame of reference effects during an elastic collision.
Questions:
During elastic collisions, how does the more massive cart behave?
When different mass carts collide, which undergoes the greater acceleration?
