Momentum

When I think of momentum, what first comes to mind is someone running full speed toward a fixed point. In class today we learned that momentum is mass multiplied by velocity, it's a vector quantity, and its units are kg x m/s

Momentum (p) = mass (m) x velocity (v)

Impulse is the average force upon the object multiplied by the time the force is acting upon the object. It's also the change in momentum.

Force = change in momentum/change in time

change in momentum = force x change in time = impulse

In the lab we did today we used the air tracks again (for the last time!) to calculate how mass and velocity affect the momentum of objects. We did 9 different scenarios, with different masses and directions and velocities in each in order to see their affect on the momentum. We used the data and the equation for momentum to see that momentum is conserved.