Momentum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about momentum in physics. For other uses, see Momentum (disambiguation).

In a game of pool, momentum is conserved; that is, if one ball stops

dead after the collision, the other ball will continue away with all the
momentum. If the moving ball continues or is deflected then both balls
will carry a portion of the momentum from the collision.
Common symbols

p, p

SI unit

kg m/s or N s

Classical mechanics

Second law of motion

History

Timeline
Branches

Applied

Celestial

Continuum

Dynamics

Kinematics

Kinetics
Statics
Statistical
Fundamentals

Acceleration
Angular momentum

Couple

D'Alembert's principle

Energy
kinetic

potential

Force

Frame of reference

Impulse

Inertia / Moment of inertia

Mass

Mechanical power

Mechanical work

Moment

Momentum

Space

Speed

Time

Torque

Velocity

Virtual work
Formulations

Newton's laws of motion

Analytical mechanics
Lagrangian mechanics
Hamiltonian mechanics
Routhian mechanics
HamiltonJacobi equation
Appell's equation of motion
UdwadiaKalaba equation
Core topics

Damping (ratio)

Displacement

Equations of motion

Euler's laws of motion

Fictitious force

Friction
Harmonic oscillator

Inertial / Non-inertial reference frame

Mechanics of planar particle motion

Motion (linear)

Newton's law of universal gravitation

Newton's laws of motion

Relative velocity

Rigid body
dynamics

Euler's equations

Simple harmonic motion

Vibration
Rotation

Circular motion

Rotating reference frame

Centripetal force

Centrifugal force

reactive

Coriolis force

Pendulum

Tangential speed

Rotational speed

Angular acceleration / displacement / frequency / velocity

Scientists

Galileo

Newton

Kepler

Horrocks

Halley

Euler

d'Alembert

Clairaut

Lagrange

Laplace
Hamilton
Poisson

Daniel Bernoulli

Johann Bernoulli

Cauchy

In classical mechanics, linear momentum or translational

momentum (pl. momenta; SI unit kg m/s, or equivalently, newton second) is the product of
the mass and velocity of an object. For example, a heavy truck moving rapidly has a large
momentumit takes a large or prolonged force to get the truck up to this speed, and it takes a
large or prolonged force to bring it to a stop afterwards. If the truck were lighter, or moving more
slowly, then it would have less momentum.
Like velocity, linear momentum is a vector quantity, possessing a direction as well as a
magnitude:
where p is the three-dimensional vector stating the object's momentum in the three
directions of three-dimensional space, v is the three-dimensional velocity vector giving the
object's rate of movement in each direction, and m is the object's mass.
Linear momentum is also a conserved quantity, meaning that if a closed system is not
affected by external forces, its total linear momentum cannot change.
In classical mechanics, conservation of linear momentum is implied by Newton's laws. It also
holds in special relativity (with a modified formula) and, with appropriate definitions, a
(generalized) linear momentum conservation law holds in electrodynamics,quantum
mechanics, quantum field theory, and general relativity. It is ultimately an expression of one
of the fundamental symmetries of space and time, that of translational symmetry.