Answer:
The momentum of an object is equal to the product of its mass and its velocity.
Explanation:
Consider an object of mass travelling at a velocity
. The momentum
of this object would be:
.
For the law of conservation of momentum, consider two objects: object and object
. Assume that these two objects collided with each other.
- Let
and
denote the mass of the two objects.
- Let
and
denote the velocity of the two object right before the interaction.
- Let
and
denote the velocity of the two objects right after the interaction.
- The momentum of the two objects right before the collision would be
and
, respectively.
- The momentum of the two objects right after the collision would be
and
, respectively.
The sum of the momentum of the two objects would be:
right before the collision, and
right after the collision.
Assume that the system of these two objects is isolated. By the law of conservation of momentum, the sum of the momentum of these two objects should be the same before and after the collision. That is:
.