Question

Bryce, a mouse lover, keeps his four pet mice in a roomy cage, where they spend much of their spare time–when they\'re not sleeping or eating–joyfully scampering about on the cage\'s floor. bryce tracks his mice\'s health diligently and just now recorded their masses as 0.0227 kg, 0.0217 kg, 0.0215 kg, and 0.0235 kg. at this very instant the x and y components of the mice\'s velocities are, respectively, (0.517 m/s, -0.493 m/s), (-0.603 m/s, -0.309 m/s), (0.373 m/s, 0.477 m/s), and (-0.853 m/s, 0.955 m/s). calculate the x and y components of bryce\'s mice\'s total momentum, px and py.

Answer 1

By definition,
Momentum = Mass x Velocity.

For mouse of mass, m, and velocity components (Vx, Vy),
the components of momentum are
px = m*Vx
py = m*Vy

Construct a table to display m, Vx, Vy, px, and py as shown below.

  m, kg  Vx, m/s  Vy, m/s  px, (kg-m)/s  py (kg-m)/s
----------  ----------   ----------  -----------------  ----------------
0.0227    0.517    -0.493        0.0117        -0.0112
0.0217   -0.603    -0.309      -0.0131        -0.0067
0.0215    0.373      0.477       0.0080       0.0103
0.0235  -0.853     0.955      -0.0200       0.0224