Momentum

p=m
v
SI unit for momentum: kg m s-1 (no special name).

Show that kg m s-1 = Ns

Momentum is a vector quantity

Velocity and momentum vectors point in the same direction.
Calculate the momentum of

(i) a Bus: m = 9000 kg; v = 16 m /s

(ii)Car: m = 1800 kg; v = 80 m /s
(iii)

Train: m = 3.6 104 kg; v = 4 m /s

The train, bus, and car all have different masses and speeds, but their momenta are the
same in magnitude. The massive train has a slow speed; the low-mass car has a great
speed; and the bus has moderate mass and speed. Note: We can only say that the
magnitudes of their momenta are equal
Something big and slow could have the same momentum as something small and fast.
A car possesses 20 000 units of momentum. What would be the car's new momentum if ...
a. its velocity was doubled.
b. its velocity was tripled.
c. its mass was doubled (by adding more passengers and a greater load)
d. both its velocity was doubled and its mass was doubled.

Force and momentum

As the force acts upon the object for a given amount of time, the object's velocity is
changed; and hence, the object's momentum is changed. Any object with momentum is
going to be hard to stop. To stop such an object, it is necessary to apply a force against its
motion for a given period of time. The more momentum that an object has, the harder that it
is to stop. Thus, it would require a greater amount of force or a longer amount of time or
both to bring such an object to a halt.

A net force is required to change a bodys momentum.

F=ma

F=

c h ange momentum
t

An unbalanced force always accelerates an object - either speeding it up or slowing it

down. If the force acts opposite the object's motion, it slows the object down. If a force acts
in the same direction as the object's motion, then the force speeds the object up. Either
way, a force will change the velocity of an object.
Application - Car safety features
When there is a car crash, the car, its contents and the passengers decelerate rapidly. They
experience great forces because of the change in momentum, which can cause injury.
Modern cars also have safety features that absorb kinetic energy in collisions. These typically
include:

Seat belts
Air bags
Crumple zones
These features reduce injuries to the people in the car by absorbing energy when they
change shape. They increase the time taken for the change in momentum on the occupants'
bodies, reducing the forces involved and injuries.

Seat belts
Seat belts stop you tumbling around inside the car if there is a collision. However, they are
designed to stretch a bit in a collision. This increases the time taken for the body's momentum
to reach zero, so reduces the forces on it.
Air bags
Air bags increase the time taken for the head's momentum to reach zero, so reduce the forces
on it. They also act a soft cushion and prevent cuts.
Crumple zones
Crumple zones are areas of a vehicle that are designed to crush in a controlled way in a
collision. They increase the time taken to change the momentum in a crash, which reduces
the force involved.
Questions
1. A dart of mass 200g strikes a dartboard with a horizontal velocity of 6m/s. The dart pushes
its way into the dart board a little and takes 0,05s to stop moving. Calculate the magnitude
of the average force that the dartboard exerts on the dart to stop it.
2. A trolley A of mass 3kg travels due east at a velocity of 7m.s-1. Another trolley B of mass
4kg follows along the same path at 12m.s-1 and collides with it. After the collision, trolley A
continues to travel east but with a velocity of 11m.s-1. Calculate the velocity of trolley B
after the collision.
3. A car of mass 1100kg moves at 24 m/s. What is the braking force needed to bring the car to
a halt in 2.0 seconds?

Conservation of momentum
The principle of conservation of linear momentum states that in any interaction between
bodies, linear momentum is conserved provided on resultant external force acts on the
bodies.
MOMENTUM - in sticky collisions:

Question
1. 30 kg child running at 7 m/s jumps onto a 10 kg sled which was initially at rest. What will
be the velocity of the child+sled immediately after the child jumps on the sled?
2. A 70 kg astronaut floating in an orbiting space station throws a 1.0 kg water bottle
across the room at a speed of 8.0 m/s. What is the magnitude of the astronauts recoil
velocity? Assuming that this is a perfect inelastic
a. collision, calculate the velocity after the
b. collision in the example below.
3.

4. A 1000 kg car is rolling down the street at 2.5 m/s. How fast would a 2500 kg car have
to collide into it in order to bring it to rest (0 m/s)?
5. A 3000-kg truck moving rightward with a speed of 5 km/hr collides head-on with a 1000kg car moving leftward with a speed of 10 km/hr. The two vehicles stick together and
move with the same velocity after the collision. Determine the post-collision speed of the
car and truck.
6. 45 cm/s when it encounters a smaller fish (m=0.25 kg) that is at rest. The large fish
swallows the smaller fish and continues in motion at a reduced speed. Find its new
speed

Impulse

F=ma
or
F = m v / t
If both sides of the above equation are multiplied by the quantity t, a new equation results.

F t = m v
Impulse = Change in momentum
The last statement of Newtons second law, together with the third law, tells us what happens in a
situation where two ice skaters push each other apart as they move horizontally across the ice.
The push of the man on the woman is equal and opposite to the push of the woman on the man
(Newtons 3rd law),
so the term Ft, which is called the impulse of the force, will be exactly the same size during each
interval t, as they push apart.
As a consequence the overall change of momentum of the man will be equal but opposite to the
change of momentum of the woman. We have proved that the conservation of momentum in this
case is a consequence of Newtons 2nd and 3rd laws.
Question:
1. Explain the instant where a tennis racket hits a ball.
2. How much force is exerted on a 13 kg object accelerating from 20 m/s to 12 m/s in 3.5
seconds?
3. How much force is exerted on a 3 kg object accelerating from 12 m/s to rest in 5.5
seconds?
4. How much time is needed to accelerate a 3 kg object from rest to 12 m/s if a force of 2.5-N
is applied?
5. How much time is needed to accelerate a 4 kg object from 10 m/s to 12 m/s if a force of
2.5-N is applied?

6. An alpha particle is emitted fro a Po atom at a speed of 1.8 X 10-7 ms-1 the relative mass
of alpha and the remaining nucleus are 4.002 and 212.0, calculate the recoil velocity of the
nucleus.

7. It takes you all of 0.018 s to initially touch and then catch a 0.600 kg football travelling at
16.0 m/s.
(a) What is the change in momentum for the football?
(b) What is the impulse?
(c) What is the force that must be exerted to stop the ball?

8. A tennis ball is at rest when it experiences a forward force to set it in motion. It then strikes
a wall where it encounters a force that slows it down and finally turns it around and sends it
backwards.

9.

10. A hockey player hits a hockey ball of mass 150 g moving directly towards her at 10m.s-1,
straight back. The force which the hockey stick exerts on the hockey ball is given by the
graph below.

Are of a force time graph

Since the area under the line is really just
multiplying force and time, the area must
be equal to the impulse acting on the
object.
If we calculate the area under the graph (a
triangle) we will know what the impulse is.
A = bh
= (5.78 s)(3012 N)
= 8704.68
A = 8.70 x 103 kgm/s
Change in momentum = 8.70 x 103 kgm/s

Questions
1. Calvin & Hobbes, 45 kg, are sleigh riding down a hill. The hill they are on is irregular
shaped, slopes up and down and has snow of varying depths and textures. Below is a
force vs time graph of the force acting on their sled. The initial velocity when they hit
the part of the hill depicted on the graph at 11 m/s.

(a) How do you find the impulse from 30 to 60 seconds?

(b) Which 30 seconds time interval contains a net negative impulse?
(c) What is the impulse from 30 to 60 seconds?
(d) What is the impulse from 90 to 120 seconds?
(e) What is the impulse from 150 to 180 seconds?
(f) Using the information from text above combined with the graph, calculate the
final velocity at the 60 second mark.
(g) Calculate the final velocity at the 120 second mark.

(h) Calculate the final velocity at the end of the ride?

(i) What was the average velocity for the entire ride?
(j) What is the (average) acceleration over the entire ride?
(k) What must the initial velocity be so that Calvin and Hobbes come to a rest at the
end of the ride?

2. To the right is a force versus time graph for a childs toy car. The toy is malfunctioning and
is producing the force shown,

a. What is velocity of the toy car, 0.756 kg, after 20 seconds if it starts from rest?
b. What is velocity of the toy car, 0.756 kg, after 20 seconds if it starts from 10 m/s?
3. A 1.00 kg ball traveling towards a soccer player at a velocity of 5.00 m/s rebounds off the
soccer players foot at a velocity of 8.50 m/s. If the time of contact between the ball and the
players foot was 2.00 x 10-2 seconds, what was the force that the foot applied on the ball?
4. A 1.50 kg rock falls from the top of a 10.0 m high building and strikes the ground below.
What is the force of the ground acting on the rock if it comes to a stop in 0.350 seconds.
5. A girl of mass 50kg wearing skates stands stationary on ice. She throws a ball of mass
400g at a speed of 25m/s. Calculate:
a. her velocity immediately after throwing the ball. (4)
b. her momentum immediately after throwing the ball. (3)
c. the momentum of the ball immediately after it has been thrown. (3)
6.

In order to complete a tough split in bowling, a bowling ball of mass 6.5 kg is rolled with a
velocity of 12 m/s. The ball hits a 1.3 kg bowling pin, sending it off with a speed of 3.5 m/s
at an angle of 80 degrees with respect to the original direction of the bowling ball. What is
the angle and direction of the bowling balls velocity after the collision with the pin?

Rockets
The equation

F=

mv
t

can be use if the motion of rockets.

Where the stream of matter (waste gas)

m
t

is ejected at a speed of v as mass decreases it

rocket gains speed.

Question
1. A rocket is ready to take off. It ejects waste gases, the result of exploding a mixture of
oxygen and hydrogen. At a rate of 1.2 x 104 kgs-1. If the exhaust speed is 4.0 x 103 ms-1
calculate the upward trust of the ejected gases on the rocket.

Momentum and energy

Sometimes it's desirable to express the kinetic energy of a particle in terms of the momentum.
p
That's easy enough. Since v =
and the kinetic energy so
m

Note that if a massive particle and a light particle have the same momentum, the light one will
have a lot more kinetic energy. If a light particle and a heavy one have the same velocity, the
heavy one has more kinetic energy.
Calculate the momentum of a 58g tennis ball with KE 75j
Calculate the KE of an arrow of mass 0.12kg at a momentum of 5.2kgms-1.
What is the momentum of an electron of mass 9.1 x 10-31kg and a proton of mass 1.7 x 10-27kg,
it each of which has a KE of 150eV.
Elastic ans in eelstic collitions

A perfectly elastic collision is defined as one in which there is no loss of kinetic energy in the
collision. An inelastic collision is one in which part of the kinetic energy is changed to some other
form of energy in the collision. Any macroscopic collision between objects will convert some of the
kinetic energy into internal energy and other forms of energy, so no large scale impacts are
perfectly elastic. Momentum is conserved in inelastic collisions, but one cannot track the kinetic
energy through the collision since some of it is converted to other forms of energy. Collisions in

ideal gases approach perfectly elastic collisions, as do scattering interactions of sub-atomic

particles which are deflected by the electromagnetic force.

pa + pb = pa + pb
KEa + KEb = KEa + KEb
KEa + KEb = KEa + KEb + Heat

1. Two train cars of identical mass (m = 10.0 kg)

collide and move off as shown. The left car was
initially traveling at 2.0 m/s right and the right
car was initially traveling at a velocity of 3.0 m/s
left. After the collision, the left car is traveling at
velocity of 2.5 m/s to the left.

pa + pb = pa + pb
V1I

V2I

V1F

V2F

a. What type of a collision is depicted here?

______________________________________________
b. What was the initial momentum of the right car?

c. What was the initial momentum of the left car?

d. What was the final momentum of the left car?

e. What was the final momentum of the right car?

A 1250 kg car is moving down the highway with a velocity of 32.0 m/s when it bumps into the car
ahead of it which has a mass of 875 kg and a velocity of 25.0 m/s. After the collision, the two cars

stick together. What will be the resulting velocity of the two cars together? How much energy will
be lost in this collision? (
A 4.0 kg model rocket is launched, shooting 50.0 g of burned fuel from its exhaust at an average
velocity of 625 m/s. What is the velocity of the rocket after the fuel has burned?
A 45.0 kg ice skater stands at rest on the ice. A friend tosses the skater a 5.0 kg ball. The
skater and the ball then move backwards across the ice with a speed of 0.5 m/s. What was
the speed of the ball at the moment just before the skater caught it? State whether the
above equation is elastic or inelastic.
Collisions in two dimensions
Through resolving

By assuming that the above is an elastic collision,

According to the conservation of momentum

X axis

Yaxis

By using the above 3 eqations the the unknown can be calculated.

A proton of mass M collides obliquely with another proton. The first proton is moving with a speed
of 6.0 x 106 m/s before it hits the second, stationary proton. Assuming the collision is perfectly
elastic, and using the fact that the first proton is moved 30 from its initial path after the collision,
figure out the speed and direction of each proton after the collision. Note that after the collision the
two protons travel at 90 to each other.

A 0.40 kg model airplane is traveling 20 km/h toward the south. A 0.50 kg model airplane traveling
25 km/h in a direction 20 east of south collides with the first model airplane. The two planes stick
together on impact. What is the direction and magnitude of the velocity of the combined wreckage
immediately after the collision?
A steel ball of mass 10 kg moves due East at 5.0 m/s. It collides with a rubber ball of mass 5.0 kg
moving at 10 m/s due North. After the collision the steel ball moves at an angle of 60 East of
North with a speed of 4.0 m/s. What is the velocity of the rubber ball after the collision?
Two balls of equal mass m undergo a collision. One ball is initially stationary. After the collision,
the velocities of the balls make angles of 31.1 and 48.9 relative to the original direction of
motion of the moving ball.
a) If the initial speed of the moving ball is 2.25 m/s, what are the speeds of the balls after
collision?
b) Is this collision elastic?

Explain how an astronaut who is stranded in free space a short distance from his spacecraft might
employ his knowledge of momentum to return safely to the craft. Why must he be very careful
about his momentum?