You are viewing an old version of this page. View the current version.

Compare with Current View Page History

« Previous Version 2 Next »

Introduction to Linear Momentum     null

Although Newton is famous for the law F=ma, he actually stated his Second Law in terms of momentum and its change due to impressed forces or impulses (the time integral of the force).   He defined Momentum as
The quantity of motion is the measure of the same, arising from the velocity and quantity of matter conjointly. - DEFINITION II, Principia (Motte and Cajori).  

In modern terminology, this definion becomes:

Unknown macro: {latex}

\begin

Unknown macro: {large}

[ \vec

Unknown macro: {p}

= m\vec

Unknown macro: {v}

]\end

and Newton's Second Law can be written:

Unknown macro: {latex}

\begin

Unknown macro: {large}

[ \sum_

Unknown macro: {rm ext}

\vec

Unknown macro: {F}

= \frac{d\vec{p}}

Unknown macro: {dt}

]\end

This form is totally equivalent to F = ma, provided that the system under consideration has constant mass. Unlike the traditional F = ma formulation, however, the formulation of Newton's Second Law in terms of momentum is accurate even for systems whose mass is variable.

  • No labels