Momentum

Momentum is a measure of how difficult it is to stop an object.

It takes into account both the:

• mass of the object (how much matter it contains)
• velocity of the object (how fast it’s moving)

In a way, it’s similar to inertia, though inertia only takes into account the mass of the object, not also the velocity.

Units

Momentum is measured in kilogram meters per second ().

Calculating momentum

We know because of the units, we can calculate momentum using the following equation:

Where:

• is the momentum in kilogram meters per second ()
• is the mass of the object in kilograms ()
• is the velocity of the object in meters per second ()

Stopping an object

The greater the momentum of an object, the more difficult it is to stop it.