Addis Ababa University

College of Natural Science

Freshman Program
Presentation on Linear Momentum

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  Names of Group Members:
 Amanuel Negatu
 Amanuel Zewdu
 Afrah Ismail
 Biniyam Tadele
 Selam Daniel

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UNIT 7: LINEAR MOMENTUM
 Learning outcome
After completing this Chapter, students are expected to:
1. Define linear momentum
2. Explain the relationship between momentum and
force
3. State kinetic energy of motion in terms of
momentum
4. Relate collision and momentum
5. Solve problems related to various types of collision

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7.1 THE CONCEPT OF MOMENTUM AND IMPULSE

• The linear momentum of a particle is a vector quantity that is defined as:

• Doubling either the mass or the velocity of an object doubles its

momentum; doubling both quantities quadruples its momentum.
• Momentum is a vector quantity. Its components in Cartesian coordinates
are :

• Where Px is the momentum of the object in the x – direction, Py its

momentum in the y – direction and Pz its momentum in the z – direction.

• The magnitude of the momentum :

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Force and Momentum. Newton expressed his second law of motion in terms of
momentum:

• Changing the momentum of an object requires the application of a force.

• This is, in fact, how Newton originally stated his second law of motion.
Starting from the more common version of the second law, we have :

• Where the mass m and the force are assumed constants. The quantity in
parentheses is just the momentum.
• This equation is also valid when the forces are not constant, provided the
limit is taken as
becomes infinitesimally small.
• The above equation says that if the net force on an object is zero, the
object’s momentum doesn’t change.
• In other words, the linear momentum of an object is conserved when the
net force is zero.
• The equation also shows us that changing an object’s momentum requires
the continuous application of a force over a period of time leading to the
definition of impulse.
• If a constant force F acts on an object, the impulse I⃗ delivered to the
object over a time interval is given by:

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IMPULSE
 Impulse is a vector quantity with the same direction as the constant force
acting on the object. When a single constant force ⃗F⃗⃗ acts on an object the
equation can be written as:

which is a special case of the impulse–momentum theorem.

 The equation shows that the impulse of the force acting on an object equals
the change in momentum of that object. That equality is true even if the force
is not constant, as long as the time interval is taken to be arbitrarily small.
 In real-life situations, the force on an object is only rarely constant. To analyze
the case of variable force with rather complex interaction of bodies, it’s useful
to define an average force.

The impulse-momentum theorem states that the

impulse applied to an object will be equal to the
change in its momentum.

 The average force is the constant force delivering the same impulse to the
object in the time interval as the actual time-varying force.

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Deriving the impulse momentum theorem

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 Real life applications of the impulse
momentum theorem

The Impulse Momentum Theorem in Action

Boxing Gloves

 For example, boxers use boxing gloves. The padding in the gloves increases
the time it takes the fist inside to stop. Assume that the boxer throws
consistent punches with the same speed. The gloved hand takes longer to
stop, resulting in a lower force. If they threw the same punch without the
glove, the shorter stopping time would result in an increased force. This
would result in more damage to the face being punched and to the fist
throwing the punch.
 In other types of contact sports, you can see the impulse-momentum
theorem in action when someone rolls with a punch. The increased contact
time when you roll decreases the net force of the punch. Fighters are often
knocked out when they move into a punch, decreasing the time of
interaction, resulting in a larger force.
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7.2 CONSERVATION OF MOMENTUM
 When a collision occurs in an isolated system, the total momentum of the
system doesn’t change with the passage of time. Instead, it remains
constant both in magnitude and in direction. The momenta of the
individual objects in the system may change, but the vector sum of all the
momenta will not change. The total momentum is therefore said to be
conserved.
 The conservation of momentum states that, within some problem domain,
the amount of momentum remains constant; momentum is neither created
nor destroyed, but only changed through the action of forces as described
by Newton's laws of motion

 The law of conservation of linear momentum

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  Conservation of Momentum Derivation (conservation of
momentum formula)
 Newton's third law states that when object A produces a force on object B,
object B responds with a force of the same magnitude but opposite
direction. Newton derived the law of conservation of momentum from this
concept.


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 REAL LIFE EXAMPLES OF THE LAW OF CONSERVATION OF
MOMENTUM

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7.3 COLLISIONS IN ONE DIMENSION AND IN TWO DIMENSIONS
 TYPES OF COLLISION:

1. Perfectly inelastic collision

 A perfectly inelastic collision occurs when the maximum amount of kinetic

energy of a system is lost. In a perfectly inelastic collision, i.e., a zero
coefficient of restitution, the colliding particles stick together. In such a
collision, kinetic energy is lost by bonding the two bodies together.
 Because the total momentum of the two-object isolated system before the
collision
equals the total momentum of the combined-object system after the
collision, we can solve for the final velocity using conservation of
momentum alone:

 Examples of a perfectly inelastic collision

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 2. Elastic collision

 An elastic collision is a collision in which there is no net loss in kinetic

energy in the system as a result of the collision. Both momentum and
kinetic energy are conserved quantities in elastic collisions.
 We can write these conditions as:

 Example of elastic collision

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3. Two dimensional (Glancing) collisions

 Glancing collision is a collision that takes place under a small angle, with the
incident body being nearly parallel to the surface.

 If two objects make a glancing collision, they'll move off in two dimensions
after the collision (like a glancing collision between two billiard balls).

 For such collisions, we obtain two component equations for the

conservation of momentum:

 Example of glancing collision

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7.4 THE CONCEPT OF CENTER OF MASS
 What are point masses?

• Whole mass of a big object is supposed to be concentrated at a point. If a

big object has mass M, we suppose all mass of object is concentrated at a
point, we don’t take dimensions of object but consider it as a point.

 CENTER OF MASS OF AN OBJECT

• The center of mass is a position defined relative to an object or system of

objects. It is the average position of all the parts of the system, weighted
according to their masses. For simple rigid objects with uniform density, the
center of mass is located at the centroid.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. A 60 kg man standing on a stationary 40 kg boat throws a
0.2 kg ball with a velocity of 5m/s what is the speed of the
boat after the man throws the ball?
2. Which object has a greater momentum, a 1200kg car
moving at a speed of 35m/s or a 3000kg truck moving at a
seed of 15m/s?
3. A 5 kg block is moving east at 6m/s and a 6 kg block is
moving north at 4 m/s. find the magnitude and direction
(relative to the x axis.) of the net momentum of the system.
4. Which one of the following statements is true?
A. the center of mass of an object must lie within the
object
B. all the mass of an object is actually concentrated at its
center of mass
C. the center of mass of an object cannot move if there is
zero net force on the object
D. the center of mass of a cylinder must lie on its axis
E. none of the above
5. The center of mass of a system of particles has a
constant velocity if:
A. the forces exerted by the particles on each other sum
to zero
B. the external forces acting on particles of the system

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 sum to zero
C. the velocity of the center of mass is initially zero
D. the particles are distributed symmetrically around the
center of mass
E. the center of mass is at the geometric center of the
system

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  Reference:
 GENERAL PHYSICS MODULE (PHYS 1011), Prepared by AAU,
College of Natural Science, Department of Physics, Dec 2019,
Addis Ababa.
 Jearl Walker, David Halliday, Robert Resnick: Fundamentals of
physics .10th edition. Wiley
 Image credits:
 Google images

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