Unit 7

One of the hardest parts about this lesson is how there are so many values that are the same, but have different names. For example, impulse = jimpulse = change in momentum = average force multiplied by change in time = mass multiplied by final velocity - mass multiplied by initial velocity.

One of our demonstrations today was about momentum and impulse, and we had one person on the hovercraft and one person on the danger board, and we observed how they accelerated in different directions after throwing or catching the medicine ball. When the medicine was thrown, the mass of the system was changing, same as when the ball was caught. The change in mass is what caused the hovercraft and danger board to accelerate. Momentum is mass multiplied by velocity, so when the mass changed so does the momentum.