What is momentum? I am so confused!?

Question

I am taking physics right now and I know the formula to momentum but I am still so confused!

Answer 1

Momentum is what a moving mass has because of inertia.

Answer 2

Momentum is mass * velocity.
So ... momentum increases if you have a bigger heavier mass, you get more momentum, and
momentum increases the faster that mass is moving.

Force results from a change in momentum in an increment of time, so you know if you catch a baseball with mitt you have less force applied to you than if you stop a baseball with your head?

The force would be smaller with less momentum .. ie, the baseball moving slower, or the ball replaced with a wiffle ball.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

Your confusion may stem from not fully grasping the difference between speed, which is scalar, and velocity, which is a vector quantity. Vectors have magnitude and direction.

In collisions, either elastic or inelastic, momentum is always conserved. Where we get confused is that energy is also conserved, but some of the kinetic energy will be lost to friction or other forms of energy in the collision.

So, when you write your conservation of momentum equations, be very careful of the direction of the vector.

I hope that helps.

j

Answer 4

This comes right out of my science book.

"When Newton presented his three laws of motion, he used two different words to describe moving objects. He used the word velocity, but he also wrote about something he called 'the quantity of motion.' What is the quantity of motion? Today we call it momentum. The momentun of an object is the product of its mass and velocity."

The unit is kg/m/s.

Oh, and the more momentum something has, the harder it is to stop.

Answer 5

Think of it this way: If a truck hits you at 50 mi/hr you will die, but if a fly hits you at that speed nothing would happen to you. That's momentum! If the truck hits you at 1 Mi/hr, you won't be hurt. It's a combination of speed and mass.

Answer 6

when you are building or have built up speed