two cars travelling with same speed but different dirention. are they have the same momentum?

Answer 1

Only if they have the same mass and frictional and drag coefficients.

The vector guys below have me beat on a technicality. Nice work guys.

Answer 2

At one look of the question, you can tell that the momentum of the two cars are different. The very reason why this is so is because of the property of Momentum, which describes it as a vector.

Momentum(vector) = Mass(scalar) * Velocity(vector)

Since in momentum we take into account the velocity of the body, then we must also take into account the direction of the motion of the body. In this case, the two cars are travelling in different directions, so they obviously have different momentum, as seen below:

Momentum of Car 1 = M * V

Since the other car is travelling in the opposite direction, its velocity will be negative:

Momentum of Car 2 = M * -V

Therefore, we can see that MV is definitely not equal to -MV.

Even if we assume that the mass of the two cars are equal, their momentum will still be different. However, the magnitude of their momentum will be the same if their mass are the same.

The modulus of the momentum of the two cars will be the same:

Since their mass are the same, let their mass be M, V1 and V2 be their velocity respectively:
|M*V1| = |M*V2|

Divide both sides by M:
|V1| = |V2|

Since the magnitude of velocity is the speed,
Speed of Car 1 = Speed of Car 2
which is true.

Hence, back to the point, the two cars will have different momentum but the magnitude of their momentum will be the same only if their mass are equal.

Hope this helps. =)

Answer 3

As others have reported, the direction concerns. in any different case the momentum is the comparable. Wind velocity etc. do no longer count, you reported the linked fee replaced into the comparable and the automobiles comparable so the size of the momentum is the comparable. yet i assume reason you ask is which you ponder whether it concerns that the single traveling East travels interior the comparable direction as Earth's rotation on a similar time as the single traveling West does not. So relative to somebody who does not persist with Earth's rotation, the single traveling East has the biggest momentum because of the fact it is p0+p, the place p0 is the momentum it might have if it the place at relax purely carried via Earth's rotation, on a similar time as the onle traveling West has a momentum of p0-p. yet each little thing is relative, you may degree velocity (and as a result, momentum) relative to whateever physique of reference you pick for, and that of a vehicle is many times measured relative to the floor of the Earth. So i might say that the size of the momemtum is the comparable for the two automobiles.

Answer 4

momentum = mass * velocity
so, momentum depends on two things
1) mass: if the mass of the two cars is the same then the momentum can be same
2) velocity: the question says that the speed of the two cars is same but direction is different(opposite), so speed of one car can be x and that of the other will be -x (because velocity is a vector)....
so assuming that the mass of the two cars is the same, lets say m , even then their momentum will differ by the sign
so moemntum of one will be calculated as m*x while that of the other will be m*(-x)=-m*x
so even if masses of both cars are same their momentum is different because of the direction, but magnitudally the momentum will be same

Answer 5

The magnitude would be the same, but momentum is a vector quantity and the directions are of course different.

Answer 6

No, they have different momentum.
Momentum is a vector quantity. It has a direction, The direction is in the direction of velocity.
Bodies of same mass moving with same velocity in different directions will have the magnitude of momentum same, but directions different.
So they have different momentum.

Answer 7

No. Momentum is a -vector- quantity. The magnitude of their momenta (yes, it really is 'momenta' and not 'momentums' ☺) may be the same, but it they are travelling in different directions so they are different.

Doug

Answer 8

momentum is p=mv
if the two cars have the same mass, then yes, they have the same magnitude of momentum
if they have different masses, then no, they have different momentum

wow.... looking at later answers to this, people are good at rewording what has already been said.

Answer 9

I think so, its not velocity. Im only 7th grade but I think they have the same momentum....I think

Answer 10

no because momentum is a vector...mass (scalar) times velocity (vector)...so its a vector and thus different directions mean different vectors..

Good Question..I like it ...