High School Physics/Momentum

"Joey Newtons recently just got his car, the Speeder 3000. On the first day of school, he noticed he was late. Joey Newtons is unwilling to slow down for anybody. Thus he decided to go to school above the speed limit. While driving to school really fast, he notices that a sign says "There are moments when going too fast simply can't stop you... Take Sleepeasy to make your day better."

With such a distraction, he realises that he is about to collide with the town's mascot, Rubber Wally. Just in the nick of time, the car hits Wally, who is then thrown into a pool. Unfortunately, Joey also hits the town's historic house, Rubber Wall. He said to himself "I didn't know getting distracted for a moment would get my car back to where I live!"

That said, the combination of Mass and Velocity creates the effect we call "momentum." Momentum is basically an alternate of our beloved concept called force which is basically about the willingness of an object with a certain mass to move with a certain speed.


The momentum of an object is the velocity of an object multiplied by its mass:

Since the velocity of an object is a vector (it has a direction as well as a magnitude) momentum is also considered to be a vector. Splitting the above equation into its direction and magnitude components:

  • Magnitude:
  • Direction: — the direction of an object's momentum is the same as that of its velocity

So for example a car with a mass of 1,000 kilogrammes and travelling at 5 metres per second has a momentum of 5,000 kilogramme metres per second, in the direction of travel.


Impulse = Force * Time

"Joey newtons is highly impulsive because he doesn't like to wait for anything."


Relation of the two concepts

P = mv I = FT

P = I