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📘 Momentum belongs to a defined system

Draw a boundary around the objects you analyze. Internal forces cancel in the total; external impulses can change it.

3
lessons
~15 min
to learn
Adults
level
Start the course →

What you’ll learn

  1. Set up momentumDefine the system, choose a positive direction, and write signed initial momentum.Conservation applies to a bounded system; velocity signs matter on one axis.
  2. Model the collisionUse internal-force cancellation and write before-and-after momentum for sticking or separating objects.Internal impulses cancel; perfectly inelastic collisions share one final velocity.
  3. Classify collisionsDistinguish elastic from inelastic collisions and extend the idea to propulsion.Elastic collisions conserve kinetic energy too; momentum can hold while energy becomes heat or deformation.

Questions this course answers

What must be true for total momentum to remain constant during a collision?

Momentum is conserved for a system when outside forces provide negligible net impulse during the event.

If right is positive, what sign belongs to the velocity of an object moving left?

Velocity is signed relative to the chosen axis, so leftward motion is negative when right is positive.

Which expression is the total initial momentum of two objects moving along one axis?

Add the signed momenta; a negative velocity automatically makes one term subtract.

What is special about a perfectly inelastic collision?

Perfectly inelastic objects move together after impact, while momentum can still be conserved for an isolated system.

What additional quantity is conserved in an ideal elastic collision?

Elastic collisions conserve both total momentum and total kinetic energy.

Grounded in trusted sources

  • [object Object]
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