Momentum and Impulse

The words of the week are Momentum and Impulse. They are quite closely related and the Momentum concept is going to make use of all those vector maths skills we have been honing over the last few weeks.


A good way to think about momentum is as an objects "quantity of motion". It combines the motion and the mass of a object. Impulse is the net force applied to an object multiplied by the length of time it is applied.

The effect of impulse on an object is to accelerate (or retard) it which of course will change it's momentum. In fact: Impulse = the change in Momentum.

Happy fizziks
Mr Ed