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Look at the ball and the pins above. Why is it when I bowl, sometimes I strike (all pins down), but other times only 2/3 pins were knocked down? When a car ramped into a tree, the tree collapsed. But, when a lorry which is traveling at the same speed as the car, knocked the tree, the tree does not collapsed. Why? This is because of Momentum. What is that?
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Momentum is a mass in motion. All moving objects have momentum. The faster it moves, the more momentum it has. The bigger its mass, the more its momentum.
For example, comparing momentum of a car and a lorry traveling at same velocity.
Or comparing momentum of a car speeding from 10 ms-1 to 20 ms-1.
Is momentum a scale quantity or vector quantity? Of course, it is a vector quantity because it has direction. Its direction is the same as the direction of its velocity. What is the unit of momentum? Since momentum = mv, therefore (m = mass, v = velocity) unit of momentum = (unit of mass) x (unit of velocity) = (kg) x (ms-1 ) = kgms-1
What is the momentum of trolley P and Q?
Let's study momentum in collision and explosion. |
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Leow Hoay Suan Secondary School Physics teacher,Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. September 2002
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Last updated: 2 January 2004
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