Answer:
The linear momentum of a particle with mass m moving with velocity v is defined as
p = mv (7.1)
Linear momentum is a vector . When giving the linear momentum of a particle you must
specify its magnitude and direction. We can see from the definition that its units must be
kg·m
s
. Oddly enough, this combination of SI units does not have a commonly–used named so
we leave it as kg·m
s
!
The momentum of a particle is related to the net force on that particle in a simple way;
since the mass of a particle remains constant, if we take the time derivative of a particle’s
momentum we find
dp
dt = m
dv
dt = ma = Fnet
so that
Fnet =
dp
dt (7.2)
