MOMENTUM

M o d u l e 8

General Physics 1
 Momentum and Impulse
Recall the relation of inertia with a body’s mass. Mass is
the quantitative description of inertia. Suppose there have two
trucks with the same mass but moving with different speeds.
Which one is harder to stop – the faster truck or the slower
truck? Definitely, the faster truck is harder to stop. It has greater
inertia than the slower truck. This “inertia of moving objects” is
called momentum. It pertains to the difficulty of stopping an
2

object.
 momentum = mass x velocity

Consider a car with a given mass and velocity. Newton described

the car’s motion as momentum and has a symbol p which can be
expressed as:

p = mv
where:
p is the object’s momentum, in kilogram meters per second;
m is its mass, in kilograms; and
v is its velocity, in meters per second
The product of the force F ⃗ and the time t over which the
force acts is defined as the impulse (I).
I = 𝐹∆𝑡 = ∆𝑝
Thus, impulse = change in momentum
impulse-momentum theorem.

I = ∆𝑝
F∆t = m∆v
Example:
1. Calculate the momentum of a 1,200kg car with a velocity of
25m/s to north.
2. An average force of 50 N is exerted on a 4-kg cart for 2
seconds. What is the impulse?
A 0.45 kg soccer ball is heading toward a wall with a
speed of 20 meters per second. After hitting the wall,
the ball bounces back with a speed of 25 meters per
second. The ball was in contact with the wall for 0.003
second. What is the average force the wall exerted on
the ball?
Collisions
When two or more objects strike each other, a collision takes place. The
term collision is used to represent the event of two particles coming
together for a short time and thereby producing impulsive forces on each
other. These forces are assumed to be much greater than any external
forces present.
The law of momentum conservation can be stated as
follows.
For a collision occurring between object 1 and object 2 in
an isolated system, the total momentum of the two objects before
the collision is equal to the total momentum of the two objects
after the collision. That is, the momentum lost by object 1 is equal
to the momentum gained by object 2.
Elastic and Inelastic Collisions
Momentum is conserved in any collision in which external
forces are negligible. In contrast, kinetic energy may or may not
be constant, depending on the type of collision. In fact, whether
or not kinetic energy is the same before and after the collision is
used to classify collisions as being elastic or inelastic.
An elastic collision between two objects is one in which total
kinetic energy (as well as total momentum) is the same before and
after the collision.

𝑚1𝑣1 + 𝑚2𝑣2 = 𝑚1𝑣1𝑓 + 𝑚2𝑣2𝑓

A red ball of mass 0.2 kg hits a blue ball of 0.25 kg, in
an elastic collision, and the red ball comes to a stop.
The red ball has a velocity of 5m/s, and the ball was at
rest. What is the final velocity of the blue ball?
If the kinetic energy is not conserved, then the collision
is inelastic.

Inelastic collisions are of two types. When the colliding

objects stick together as happens when a meteorite
collides with the Earth, the collision is called perfectly
inelastic. When the colliding objects do not stick together,
but some kinetic energy is lost, as in the case of a rubber
ball colliding with a hard surface, the collision is inelastic
When two objects collide under inelastic condition,
the final velocity with which the object moves is
given by
Anne is going by a slippery hill. She has a mass of
20kg, and she is sliding the hill at a velocity of 5m/s.
Her elder brother has a mass of 30kg. Her brother is
moving slower with a velocity of 2m/s. Anne collides to
his brother. Then both of them keep going down the hill
as one unit. Calculate the resulting velocity of Anne.
Coefficient of Restitution

Pertaining to the collision of two objects, Newton formulated a

theory that we now know as Newton’s law of restitution. It
simply states that when two bodies collide, the speed with which
they move after the collision depends on the material from
which they are made
As mentioned earlier, the coefficient of restitution is a
measure of how much kinetic energy remains after
the collision of two bodies. Its value ranges from 0 to
1. If it’s on the higher side (i.e., close to 1), it
suggests that very little kinetic energy is lost during
the collision; on the other hand, if the value is low, it
indicates that a large amount of kinetic energy is
converted into heat or otherwise absorbed through
deformation.