The product of mass and velocity; symbol p, units kg.m/s; a vector quantity. Force equals the rate of change of momentum with time is the proper statement of Newton's second law. For a closed system on which no forces act, momentum is conserved - an essential principle in physics.
This article is about momentum in physics.In general the momentum of an object can be conceptually thought of as the tendency for an object to continue to move in its direction of travel.
Momentum is a conserved quantity, meaning that the total momentum of any closed system (one not affected by external forces) cannot be changed.
Momentum in Newtonian mechanics
If an object is moving in any reference frame, then it has momentum in that frame.
The amount of momentum that an object has depends on two physical quantities: the mass and the velocity of the moving object in the frame of reference. In physics, the symbol for momentum is usually denoted by a small p (bolded because it is a vector), so this can be written:
where p is the momentum, m is the mass, and v the velocity. It is insufficient to say that the ball has 10 kg m/s of momentum because momentum is not fully described unless its direction is given.
Momentum for a system
Relating to mass and velocity
The momentum for a system is the sum of all the masses in the system times the velocity of those masses.
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