(MTM) Module Overview - Momentum

Momentum

Momentum: A concept used to calculate the results of collisions.

Introduction

It's Sunday and the football game is on. A running back gets up speed and knocks a much larger lineman over. How did he do that? It can't be based on just size, the lineman was larger. It can't be just speed; a football doesn't knock over a receiver when they catch the ball. The combination of mass and velocity gives us a term called momentum. This is a concept that is only used to apply to collisions. In this module we will learn that momentum is conserved in collisions. We will also see that collisions can be broken down into three types. An elastic collision occurs when momentum is conserved and the objects bounce apart, an inelastic collision occurs when momentum is conserved and the objects stick together, and a perfectly elastic collision occurs when the objects bounce apart, momentum is conserved and kinetic energy is conserved. 

Module Lessons Preview

In this module, we will study the following topics:

  • What is impulse?
  • What conditions make a collision elastic?
  • What conditions make a collision inelastic?
  • What conditions make a collision perfectly elastic?
  • When is momentum a concept we need to be concerned with?
  • How do we calculate changes in velocity using the Law of Conservation of Momentum?

Key Terms

  1. Elastic Collision: A collision in which two objects collide and the objects separate after the collision.

  2. Impulse: In a collision, the force of impact times the time of impact. Used to determine how to reduce the force in a collision.

  3. Inelastic Collision: A collision in which two objects collide and the two objects stick together.

  4. Law of Conservation of Momentum: Momentum is conserved in a collision. The law only applies from the instant before the collision to the instant after.

  5. Momentum: A concept used to calculate the results of collisions. Momentum is the mass of an object times its velocity.

  6. Perfectly Elastic Collision:  When objects collide and bounce apart and both momentum and kinetic energy are conserved.

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