Section 1 - Mechanics The effect of a force on an objects velocity is dependent on its mass The resistance to a change in velocity is called inertia Momentum. The momentum of an object is defined as its mass x velocity The units of momentum are Kems" ‘Newton's laws of motion Newton’ first law ~ Every object continues at rest with uniform velocity unless acted upon by a resultant foree. So an object moving through space will travel at a constant velocity without slowing down since there are no other forves such as friction and air resistance acting upon it Newton's second law — The rate of chang to the resultant force acting upon it. ‘of momentum on an object is proportional Rate of change of momentum for an object initially at rest is given by the change in momentum over time: Femy Since T T = acceleration, Newton’s third law— When two object interact, they exert equal and opposite forces upon each other Lmpulss Where forces only act briefly, an npulse is exerted by the force. = Foree x time, Its units are therefore Ns Impuls Since Newton’s second law states that force ~ change in momentumvtime, we ean say that impulse must equal change in momentum, For a system of interacting objects, provided that no extemal force is acting, the total momentum before any collisions is equal to the total momentum after any collisions. Inan explosion, momentum is conserved. However since the momentum before an explosion is 0, the momentum after the explosion must also equal 0.‘The reason for this is that momentum is a vector quantity and so since the objects are moving in different directions, they each have equal and opposite momentum and so when added together, they cancel out. Deriving an cquation for kinetic energy from momentum Kinetic energy ~ 4 my? Momentum = my ‘Therefore kinetic energy can also be expressed as follows K.E=Qnyf | +—— Momentum’ 2m =a 2m This formula allows us to calculate the kinetic energy of a particle providing that we know its momentum and its mass. In order to solve momentum equations in two dimensions it is important to remember that momentum is always conserved in each dimension. So for example the total dimension in the x direction before a collision will equal the total momentum in the x direction after a collision, There are two balls A and B of masses 10kg and § Kg ms) respectively. Ball A has a horizontal velocity of 3ms! . and collides with ball B which is initally stationary. E> B After the ccllision, ball a moves away with a velocity () ‘of 2ms' at 30° to the horizontal. Calculate the velocity of B afer the collision. 1. First we need to calculate the initial momentum in the xdirection. Since B is not moving, P, = 3x 10= 30Ns. Therefore we know that the combined momentum of both balls after the collision in the x direction will equal 30. Secondly we need to work out what the momenum is in the y direction. Seeing as ball a is moving horizontally with know vericle component and ball b is stationary we can say that the momentum is 0. (P, = 0) and so the verticle ‘momentum will also equal 0 after the collision 3. Neat we need to resolve the verticle and horizontal components of A's momentum afier the collion using trigonemitry. To do this we find its horizontal and verticle velocity and multiply by its mass. This gives asa horizontal momentum of 20c0s30 Ns and a verticle momentum of 20sin30 Ns.4. We have previously calculated the total momentum in the x direction will equal 30. Therefore: 20c0s30 + 5x (momentum of B) = 30 5x=30~ 20c0s30 5x= 12.679 x=2. 536 mst 5. In the y direction we know that: Sy =20sin30 2mst 6. Using pythagorous’ theorum we ean ean find the magnitude of the X and Y components as well as its direction using trigonemtry Elastic and inelastic collision An elastic collision is a collision where no energy is lost during impact. These collisions do not happen in reality as some energy is often converted into other forms such as heat for example, ‘Most collisions are inelastic, meaning energy ii lost during impact. Collisions can also be partially inelastic and totally inelastic. A partially inelastic collision could be one where the colliding objects move apart after impact. ‘Whereas in a totally inelastic collision, the objects would couple together after colliding (this type of collision causes a greater energy loss)