Consider a body of mass m, initially moving with a velocity of magnitude u. A force F acts on the body and causes it to accelerate to a final velocity of magnitude v.

We can write Newton’s second law in the form

and a simple rearrangement shows the relation between force and momentum

Now, mv is the final momentum of the body and mu is the initial momentum of the body.

Therefore, we have

So, alternative units for momentum are Ns.

Rearranging this equation gives

change in momentum, Dp = FDt

The quantity FDt is called the impulse of the force F.

If the force acting on the body is not constant we can write

Suppose the force acting on a body varies as shown by the graph below.

During the first three seconds the change in momentum was

During the next four seconds the change in momentum was

So the total change in momentum was 60 Ns.

N.B.

Notice that the change in momentum can be found by calculating the area under the graph of force against time.

This can be useful if the graph does not consist of straight lines.

In situations where a continuous flow of matter occurs, for example, water flowing out of a pipe, gas flowing out of a rocket or jet engine etc, it is often useful to consider a slight rearrangement of the equation relating force to momentum.

• Elastic collisions
• Non-elastic collisions
• Linear Momentum
• Mechanics Chapters Index
• Return to top of page

© David Hoult 2008