What exactly is MOMENTUM?

Question

I know that momentum is the mass x velocity of an object.
I only know how to calculate like a machine but I still don't know WHAT the term 'momentum' exactly is, just as I know force and energy. And when I asked my teacher he says that at my level we only need to know how to calculate so he refuses to go into the details!!!! Can someone please kindly explain the term 'momentum' to me? Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Momentum: Objects in motion tend to stay in motion.

Answer 2

Momentum is the product of mass and velocity. It basically says about how much impact an object will have on collision. A larger body will have more momentum. Likewise velocity will also add to the momentum(collision). So the momentum or impact depends on both mass and velocity. A small car travelling fast may have same momentum as a truck traveling slow. Obviously if a car and truck are traveling at same speed the truck has more momentum or ability to cause more damage on impact..Alternatively it can also be thought of as the resistance required to stop the object.

Answer 3

Good question! lets hope I do it justice. Ok.. youve undoubtably heard that an object at rest tends to STAY at rest untill acted upon by an outside force... lets say.. a marble on the table. This marble, has mass, weight, but no inertia.. its motionless. now.. take and push that marble a bit.. and it begins to roll.. the harder you push ( the more force you transfer to that mass) the faster and farther it will roll. You can place small objects in its path, say a paper clip, and if it has enough MOMENTUM.. force remaining propelling that marble along, it will roll over that clip and continue. If the amount of inertial force, or momentum, is too low, that clip can deflect the marble in another direction, or stop it all together. In a perfect vacuume, that momentum force applied to an object will propell that object in its original course and speed forever... Which brings up the old question about Irresistable forces (objects in motion that cant be stopped) and Immovable objects, (objects that cannot move... ever for any reason) what happens if the two collide??

A more mundane way to look at the effects of momentum would be to pick up a hammer.... now swing it up and down at arms length... can you feel it trying to go a bit higher at the top of the arc? Do you feel it trying to pull out of your hand? that is the momentum of the swing.... or a yo yo... once it spins to the bottom of the string, the momentum generated by your flick of the wrist, (and Gravity) will continue that spinning momentum till it catches on that string again, and starts to climb its way back up... however gravity and friction on both the string and air causes it to lose that momentum, so if you were to just let it fall on its own, it wouldnt have enough momentum generated to climb all the way back up... however when you add that extra force by flipping it downwards.... voila!



Hope that was somewhat helpful in explaining momentum....

Answer 4

okay well basically if you look at any physics book they will tell you that momentum is mass times velocity, because that's the easiest way to explain it...

but basically, to give you an example, you can think of it this way.. it's harder to stop a big truck than a small rock that are both going at the same speed because the truck has more momentum since it's heavier.

Also, if it helps, think of it as inertia in motion. (fyi, inertia is the reluctance of any body to change its state of motion)

Answer 5

In classical mechanics, momentum (pl. momenta; SI unit kg m/s) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. For more accurate measures of momentum, see the section "modern definitions of momentum" on this page.



In general, the momentum of an object can be conceptually thought of as how difficult it is to stop the object, as determined by multiplying two factors: its inertia (the resistance of an object to being accelerated) and its velocity. As such, it is a natural consequence of Newton's first and second laws of motion. Having a lower speed or having less mass (how we measure inertia) results in having less momentum.



Momentum is a conserved quantity, meaning that the total momentum of any closed system (one not affected by external forces, and whose internal forces are not dissipative in nature) cannot be changed.



The concept of momentum in classical mechanics was originated by a number of great thinkers and experimentalists. René Descartes referred to mass times velocity as the fundamental force of motion. Codi Kruse in his Two New Sciences used the term "impeto" (Italian), while Newton's Laws of Motion uses motus (Latin), which has been interpreted by subsequent scholars to mean momentum

Answer 6

Momentum is the force or speed of movement; impetus, as of a physical object or course of events: The car gained momentum going downhill. Her career lost momentum after two unsuccessful films.

Answer 7

Momentum is the energy stored in a mass. It takes energy to overcome that stored energy. It is the resistance to a change in motion, like when you start a car moving you need engine power to overcome static momentum, and to stop it you need energy to overcome dynamic (moving) momentum. It is also called inertia.

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Answer 8

momentum is a measure of the tendency that something has to keep moving. bigger stuff and faster stuff have more momentum. it's like a bowling ball. if one of those is flying at you, it's worse than if a baseball was flying at you, because the bowling ball has more mass, and therefore more momentum. that means it also has less tendency to stop. which kinda sucks when there's a bowling ball headed at you.

Answer 9

its kind of like..

if you were running really fast, you would have a high momentum that would behard to break quickly.



when you are spinnning really fast and its hard to stop, thats becuase you have momentum of spinning around.