Edexcel IGCSE Physics

The momentum of an object will change if:

Chapter-4 Momentum
• the mass changes
• the velocity changes
MOMENTUM • the direction of the movement changes.
Momentum ¡s defined as the product of
mass and velocity.  The momentum of an object changes when a force
acts on it.
 It is a measure of how hard it is to change the motion
of an object.
Momentum and Newton’s second law of motion
It can be calculated (and is defined) using the formula: If a net force acts on an object to change its motion,
momentum = mass x velocity then we can apply Newton’s second law. From
momentum ,P = mv Newton’s second law of motion is usually given as:

m = mass in kg force = mass x acceleration

v = velocity in m/s or F = ma
Momentum is usually measured in kg-m/s.
where F = resultant force, m = mass of object and
 Velocity ¡s a vector quantity and therefore a = acceleration
momentum is too. You must give a size and a direction
when you talk about momentum. This version works if the mass of the object does not
change.
 Look at Figure : where you can see two objects
A fuller version or more appropriate of this law is:
moving ¡n opposite directions. One has posítive
momentum and the other is negative
force =

F=

where v = final velocity, u = starting or initial, velocity,

t = time for which the force is acting.

 This version works if the mass of the object changes.

The resultant force is proportional to how quickly the
momentum changes, that is, the rate of change of
momentum.

Re-arranging the formula gives:

 For example, the ball hitting a wall as shown in Figure F* t = mv — mu

1.47 will have a positive momentum before it hits the
wall and a negative momentum after it hits the wall.  force x time the force is acting = change in momentum

REMEMBER:
 So when working out problems, one direction is Momentum and safety:
called the positive direction, for example, going to the
right, with the opposite direction taken as the negative This formula helps to illustrate two important ideas:
direction, for example, going to the left.
1. For a particular force, there is a greater change in
momentum if the force acts for a longer time. For
example, a footballer who follows through when kicking
(continues the movement of the leg after making
contact with the ball) makes contact with the ball for
longer, so there is a greater change in the ball’s
momentum and the ball flies faster.

As the seat belt stretches, the momentum change is

2. For a particular change in momentum, the longer
the change takes, the smaller the force will be. For
example, when a parachutist lands, he bends his knees.
This makes the momentum change take a longer time,
so the force on the parachutist is smaller. This is also
very
important in car safety features such as crumple zones
— the car is designed to crumple on impact, which
makes the momentum change take place over a longer
time and reduces the forces on the occupants.
How do seat belts work ?
Momentum changes can be important when
considering safety features in cars, such as seat belts.
When a vehicle stops suddenly, its passengers tend to
keep going until something stops them (which follows
on from Newton’s first law of motion). Without seat
belts, they may stop very suddenly when they hit the
windscreen or a passenger in front of them. The seat
belt applies a force in the opposite direction to
the direction of motion of the vehicle.
spread over a longer period of time, which reduces the
force experienced by the person. However, because of
this stretching, seat belts should be replaced after a
collision, since the material will not be able to stretch
again in a subsequent accident, so damaged seat belts
could cause further injury.
 When we catch a fast ball we move our hands
backwards with the ball. We wear shin pads in hockey
so that the ball has more time to stop when it hits us.
When we jump off a wall we bend our legs when we
land, so that we stop in a longer time.
 Children’s playgrounds have soft, rubberised matting
under climbing frames, so that a faller takes longer to
stop.
 In a bungee jump the elastic rope slows your fall
gradually.
Newton’s third law:
Newton’s third law of motion states that: to every
force there is an equal and opposite force.
This law sounds easy to apply, but it requires clear
thinking.
First, it is important to appreciate that the pair of forces
mentioned in the law act on different bodies.

Some examples are given ¡n Figure :

Seat belts are designed to stretch a little during a crash.
If they did not,
they would hold the person in place too strongly, which
would make the person stop too quickly and increase
the forces.
a) If I push you with a force of loo N, you push me back
with a force of 100 N ¡n the opposite direction.

b) When you walk, you push the ground backwards; the

ground pushes you forwards.

c) A spacecraft orbiting the Earth is pulled downwards

by Earth’s gravity; the spacecraft exerts an equal and
opposite gravitational pull on the Earth. This means
that as the spacecraft moves, the Earth moves too. But
the Earth is so big that it only moves a tiny amount —
far too little for us to notice.

Principle of conservation of momentum :

In any collision, the total momentum before the
collision is the same as the total momentum after the
collision.
This is called the principle of conservation of
momentum and is explored in the following examples.

Consider 2 bodies of masses m1 and m2 travelling along

the same straight line with uniform velocities u1 and u2
respectively. lf the speeds of the bodies after collision
are v1 and v2 respectively, then the law of conservation
of linear momentum implies that

total momentum before collision = total momentum

after collision

m1 u1 + m2 u2 = m1 v1 + m2 v2