Every year, the physics tutor fields a few questions on conservation of momentum.\u00a0 It’s an interesting phenomenon because you can use it to explain some familiar, everyday situations.<\/p>\n
Momentum is mass times velocity.\u00a0 Something that is 50 kg, traveling at 12 m\/s, has a momentum of 600 kgm\/s.\u00a0 It’s a vector, so two momentums can cancel each other out if they have opposite directions.<\/p>\n
One great example of conservation of momentum is how a jet boat works.\u00a0\u00a0 The motor takes water, which has an initial momentum of zero, and\u00a0pushes the water, giving it velocity.\u00a0 The momentum the water gains needs to be canceled somehow, since total momentum must remain constant.\u00a0 That’s why the boat goes forward:\u00a0 to cancel out the backward momentum the water has been given.\u00a0 The\u00a0boat gains the same momentum forward that the water gains backward.\u00a0 From the point of view of physics, that’s\u00a0why a jet boat moves forward.<\/p>\n
Thanks for dropping by, and come again!<\/p>\n