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Main content
Physics

Impacts and linear momentum

Physics

Impacts and linear momentum

Lessons

Momentum and Impulse

Learn
Introduction to momentum
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Impulse and momentum dodgeball example
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What are momentum and impulse?
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What is conservation of momentum?
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Bouncing fruit collision example
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Momentum: Ice skater throws a ball
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2-dimensional momentum problem
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2-dimensional momentum problem (part 2)
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What are two dimensional collisions?
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Force vs. time graphs
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Elastic and inelastic collisions

Learn
Elastic and inelastic collisions
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What are elastic and inelastic collisions?
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Solving elastic collision problems the hard way
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Deriving the shortcut to solve elastic collision problems
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How to use the shortcut for solving elastic collisions
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Center of mass

Learn
Center of mass
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Equation for center of mass
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What is center of mass?
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About this unit

Momentum ties velocity and mass into one quantity. It might not be obvious why this is useful, but momentum has this cool property where the total amount of it never changes. This is called the conservation of momentum, and we can use it to analyze collisions and other interactions. Bam!