What is that Toy that has 5 Balls and hits eachother side to side and because of gravity never stops?

Question

What is that Toy that has 5 Balls and hits eachother side to side and because of gravity never stops?

Answer 1

It is called Newton's Cradle. It works because of conservation of momentum and energy. The energy and momentum of the first ball are transferred to the second, to the third, to the fourth, and to the fifth, that flies up because it is not colliding with anything. If there was no air resistance or friction and the collisions were perfectly elastic (no energy lost as heat), it would go on forever, with the end balls going up to the same height as the first one was initially raised to.

Answer 2

It's called a Newton's Cradle and is used to demonstrate the conservation of momentum and energy. It eventually comes to a stop due to friction, and the fact that there is no such thing as a perfectly elastic collision. Some energy is lost as heat and sound energy with each collision.

The world's largest Newton's Cradle was made by The Geek Group in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It's a set of 20 matched, 15 pound bowling balls, suspended from 20 foot cables. The balls hang 3 feet off the floor.

http://www.thegeekgroup.org/pages/projec...