Monday, July 2, 2012

Unit 7 Momentum and Collisions

We started Unit 7 today with the main focus on momentum. Momentum(p) is the quantity of motion of a moving body and is measured as the product of its mass and velocity. Momentum can also be defined as the force gained by a moving object, which can be shown by the equation, F=Δp/Δt or average force equals change in momentum over change in contact time.
We also learned about impulse which is the average force upon the object multiplied by the time the force is acting on the object. In other words impulse is the change in momentum.
In class today we also got to toss balloons where we learned that to keep the balloon from breaking you have to move with the momentum of the balloon in order to increase the impact time and decrease force. 



This is a picture of me and my friends at a graduation party. The little kid was moving backwards and we all stopped him slowly, meaning that we had a long impact time since we moved in the same direction that his momentum was already acting in. Since impact time and force and inversely proportional the force on the little kid was very small as we slowed him down very slowly.


1 comment:

  1. Great picture! I also like that you were kind enough to use a large impact time and slow him down slowly, rather than just stopping and having him take all that force. :)

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