what does momentum actually mean?

Question

pls don't give formula of momentum give its conceptual meaning in simple words

Answer 1

You can think of it this way.

"Momentum" is a property that is achieved by a body in motion.

If you wanna stop the body by some external force, you will obviously have to experience some opposite force from the body. So what momentum actually indicates is that how much force you have to experience to stop or try to slow down the body. Larger the momentum, larger the "force" you have to experience from the body.

Its easy to understand if the attempt for trying to stop a bullet train and a running man is compared. The first one has larger amount of momentum.

Ofcourse you can push the man from the back and try to help him running. In that case you will also experience some obstacle. Imagine if the man was standing still. You'll have to do a hell a job to set him running by pushing.

So either way, momentum is simply a property of a body with motion. And the amount of this "property" is experienced when you try to change (increase or decrease) its speed. That means, you exert force on it.

Hope it helps.

Answer 2

Fundamentally, momentum is the extent to which an object can exert a force upon impact. Momentum is broader than "mass in motion". For instance, light has no mass, and yet has a momentum. The momentum of light is very real because light exerts a force on an object it impacts. This is why solar sails on certain satellites work. The light transfers its momentum to the sail when hitting it, and the satellite ends up with more momentum. Put another way, the light exerts a force upon the sail upon impact, causing it to accelerate.



Defining momentum as the ability to exert a force is the same thing as saying that the force exerted on an object equals its change in momentum with respect to time. The leads to the interesting special case that if there is no total force on a system, the total momentum of the whole system must stay constant through all time. This is known as the Law of Conservation of Momentum. Some people like to fundamentally define momentum in this way: as the motional property of a system that is conserved when no net external force is exerted on the system. But if you think about it, this definition is really identical to my original one.

Answer 3

Momentum can be defined as "mass in motion." All objects have mass; so if an object is moving, then it has momentum - it has its mass in motion. The amount of momentum that an object has is dependent upon two variables: how much stuff is moving and how fast the stuff is moving. Momentum depends upon the variables mass and velocity. In terms of an equation, the momentum of an object is equal to the mass of the object times the velocity of the object.

Answer 4

Momentum is a force. If you throw a baseball at 100 mph and a bowling ball at 100 miles an hour at another object, the bowling ball will do more damage because it has more momentum than a baseball. Momentum is the relative speed and mass of an object.

Answer 5

TAKE IT THIS WAY,

If two bodies of different masses are moving with the same velocity and they are brought to rest in the same time, the force needed to stop the heavier body is more than that for the lighter body. Similarly if two bodies of the same mass are moving with different velocities, the force needed to stop the faster moving body would be more than for the slower moving body.

IT CAN BE CONCLUDED THAT,

The force needed to stop a moving body in a definite time depends both on the mass and velocity of the body. ACTUALLY THE FORCE NEEDED DEPENDS ON THE PRODUCT OF BOTH MASS AND VELOCITY OF THE MOVING BODY.

THIS PRODUCT OF MASS AND VELOCITY IS MOMENTUM( LINEAR MOMENTUM ).

Answer 6

momentum is a kind of fore linked with velocity, simple meaning is you want to slap your friend just affectionately then you just wave your hand very slowly by which you apply little force and there is no much hurt from that, but if you want to slap an enemy you will use more speed and hence more hurted.

Answer 7

it is the property of a body which justifies the laws of inertia... i totally agree with the answer of Mr. Christopher Baird..