Bakerview Center for Learning- Secondary School

Physics 11

NOTES Chapter 4 1D Momentum

Contents:
1. Momentum
2. Impulse
3. Law of Conservation of Momentum

1. Momentum:
Definition:
Momentum is the tendency of an object to continue to move in its direction of travel.
Momentum is calculated from the product of the mass and velocity of an object.

Example 1: Consider a car of mass 1000kg with a velocity of 8 m/s, calculate its momentum?

Example 2: A car possesses 20,000 units of momentum. What would be the car's new
momentum if ...
a. its velocity was doubled.

b. its velocity was tripled.

c. its mass was doubled (by adding more passengers and a greater load)

d. both its velocity was doubled and its mass was doubled.
1

2- Impulse:
Change in Momentum:
Change in Momentum If the velocity of an object changes, then the momentum of the object
will change too. We can calculate the change in momentum as follows:

How quickly the momentum of an object changes is equal to the resultant force acting on the
object. This is explained by Newtons Second Law of Motion.

Newtons Second Law of Motion In terms of momentum:

Newtons Second Law says that the rate of change of momentum of a body is
directly proportional to the net force applied and is in the direction of the net
force.
This can be expressed by the following equation:

Example 1: A rubber ball of mass 0.8 kg is dropped and strikes the floor with an initial velocity of 6
m/s. It bounces back with a final velocity of 4 m/s. Calculate the change in the
momentum of the rubber ball caused by the floor.

3- Conservation of Momentum:

The Law of Conservation of Linear Momentum states that the total linear
momentum of an isolated system remains constant in both magnitude and
direction of interacting bodies.
(In an isolated system, the total momentum before a collision is equal to the total
momentum after the collision, providing there is no external resultant force.)

Example 1: A railway car of mass 30000 kg is coasting along a track with a velocity of 6.3
m/s when suddenly a 20000 kg load of rocks is dumped into the truck, what is
its new velocity?

Example 2: A 150 N resultant force acts on a 300 kg trailer. Calculate how long it takes this
force to change the trailers velocity from 2 m/s to 6 m/s in the same
direction. Assume that the forces acts to the right.

Example 3: A cricket ball weighing 156 g is moving at 54 km/hr towards a batsman. It is hit
by the batsman back towards the bowler at 36 km/hr. Calculate
1. the balls impulse, and
2. the average force exerted by the bat if the ball is in contact with
the bat for 0.13 s.

Bakerview Center for Learning- Secondary School

Physics 11

Momentum Worksheet

1. A 1000 kg car is moving at 20 m/s. What is the momentum of the Car?

(20000 kg m/s)
2. The momentum of a car is 3.0 x 104 kg m/s. The mass of the car is 1500 kg. What is the speed of the
car?
(20 m/s)
3. The momentum of a car is 5.0 x 104 kg m/s. The speed of the car is 25.0 m/s. What is the mass of the
car?
(2000 kg)
4. Compared to a car moving at 20 m/s, the same car moving at 80 m/s has
a. the same momentum.
b. twice as much momentum.
c. four times as much momentum.
d. eight times of the momentum.
e. sixteen times of the momentum.
(Answer: c)
5. Compared to a 2-ton truck moving at 20 m/s, a 1-ton car moving at 80 m/s has
a. the same momentum.
b. twice as much momentum.
c. four times as much momentum.
d. eight times of the momentum.
e. sixteen times of the momentum.
(Answer: b)
6. A ball was hitting by a bat. The impact force is 250 N, and the contact time is 0.2 s. What is the impulse
received by the ball?
(50 N. s)
7. A 1200 kg car was crashed into a wall. The impulse is 4000 N-s and the impact time is 0.5 s. What is
the impact force on the car?
(8000 N)
8. A 1000 kg car was crashed into a garden and stopped. The impulse is 4000 N-s and the impact force is
2000 N. How long it takes for the car to stop?
(2 s)
9. A cannon is fired. Compared to the impulse on the cannon ball, the impulse on the cannon is
a. twice.
b. half.
c. smaller.
d. larger.
e. the same.
(Answer: e)

10. A car stopped by a wall takes 0.2 s. the same car with the same speed stopped by a haystack takes
0.6 s. Compared to the impulse of the wall, the impulse of the haystack is
a. one ninth.
b. one third.
c. the same.
d. three times.
e. nine times.
(Answer: c)
11. A 40 kg block with velocity 30 m/s was encountering a constant 60 N friction force until the block
stopped.
(a) What is the initial momentum of the block?
(1200 kg m/s)
(b) What is the impulse exerted on the block?
(1200 N s)
(c) How long will it take for the block to stop?
(20 s)
12. Assume a 10.0 kg bowling ball moving at 4 m/s bounces off a spring at 1 m/s.
(a) What is its change in velocity of the bowling ball?
(5 m/s)
(b) What is its change of momentum of the ball?
(50 kg m/s)
(c) What is the impulse exerted on of the ball?
( 50 N s)
(d) If the interaction with the spring occurs in 0.2 s, calculate the average force the spring
exerts on the ball.
(250 N)
13. A block with mass 60 kg and velocity 50 m/s moving along a frictionless surface collides with a
stationary block with a mass 40 kg. After the elastic collision the first block has a speed 10 m/s.
(a) What is the total momentum of the blocks before the collision?
(3000 kg m/s)
(b) What is the total momentum of the blocks after the collision?
(3000 kg m/s)
(c) What is the velocity of the second block after the collision?
(60 m/s)
18. A toy cart with mass 4 kg and velocity 6 m/s moving along a frictionless track collides with a cart with
a mass 6 kg and velocity 2 m/s on the same track. After the collision both carts locked together.
(a) What is the total momentum of the carts before the collision?
(36 kg m/s)
(b) What is the total momentum of the carts after the collision?
(36 kg m/s)
(c) What is the velocity of the carts after the collision?
(3.6 m/s)

19. A 0.40 kg ball rolls at 8.5 m/s towards a player. The player kicks the ball so that it then travels at 15.2
m/s in the opposite direction. What is the magnitude of the impulse that the ball sustained?
(9.48 N.s)
20. A 12,000kg boxcar rolling at 5.0 m/s collides with a second 15,000kg boxcar which is rolling the same
direction at 2.5 m/s. If the two cars stick together, what will be their final velocity?
(3.6m/s)

P r a c t I c e:
1. What is the unit of the Impulse?

2. A toy car of mass 1 kg moves eastwards with a speed of 2 m/s. It collides head-on with
a toy train. The train has a mass of 2 kg and is moving at a speed of 1.5 m/s westwards.
The car rebounds (bounces back) at 3.4 m/s and the train rebounds at 1.2 m/s.
a) Calculate the change in momentum for each toy.
b) Determine the impulse for each toy.
c) Determine the duration of the collision if the magnitude of the force exerted by
each
d) toy is 8 N.
3. A bullet of mass 20 g strikes a target at 300 m/s and exits at 200 m/s. The tip of the
bullet takes 0.0001s to pass through the target. Determine:
a) the change of momentum of the bullet.
b) the impulse of the bullet.
c) the magnitude of the force experienced by the bullet.
4. A bullet of mass 20 g strikes a target at 300 m/s. Determine under which circumstances
the bullet experiences the greatest change in momentum, and hence impulse. When the
bullet exits the target at 200 m/s.
4. a) The fastest recorded delivery for a cricket ball is 161.3 km/hr, bowled by
Akhtar of Pakistan during a match against England in the 2003 Cricket World Cup, held in
South Africa. Calculate the balls momentum if it has a mass of 160 g.
b) The fastest tennis service by a man is 246.2 km/hr by Andy Roddick of the United States
of America during a match in London in 2004. Calculate the balls momentum if it has a
mass of 5 g.
c) The fastest server in the womens game is Venus Williams of the United States of
America, who recorded a serve of 205 km/hr during a match in Switzerland in 1998.
Calculate the balls momentum if it has a mass of 58 g.
d) If you had a choice of facing Akhtar, Andy or Venus and you didnt want to get hurt,
who would you choose based on the momentum of each ball.
6. Two golf balls roll towards each other. They each have a mass of 100 g. Ball 1 is moving
at v1 = 2,4 m/s to the right, while ball 2 is moving at v2 = 3 m/sto the left. Calculate the
total momentum of the system.
7. Two motorcycles are involved in a head on collision. Motorcycle A has a mass of 200 kg
and was travelling at 120 km/hr south. Motorcycle B has a mass of 250 kg and was
travelling north at 100 km/hr A and B is about to collide. Calculate the momentum of
the system before the collision takes place.