In order to continue enjoying our site, we ask that you confirm your identity as a human. Thank you very much for your cooperation. The conservation of momentum calculator will help you in describing the motion of two colliding objects. Are you wondering what is momentum? Do you want to gain a better understanding of the law of conservation of momentum? Are you perplexed by the concepts of an elastic and inelastic collision? Or maybe you can't tell the difference between kinetic energy and momentum conservation principles? Whatever the reason, this article is here to help you. Prefer watching rather than reading? Check out our video lesson on conservation of momentum here:
The principle of momentum conservation says that for an isolated system, the sum of the momentums of all objects is constant (it doesn't change). An isolated system is a system of objects (it can be, and typically is, more than one body) that doesn't interact with anything outside the system. In such a system, no momentum disappears: whatever is lost by one object is gained by the other. Imagine two toy cars on a table. Let's assume they form an isolated system - no external force acts on them, and the table is frictionless. One of the cars moves at a constant speed of 3 km/h and hits the second toy car (that remained stationary), causing it to move. You can observe that the first car visibly slows down after the collision. This result happened because some momentum was transferred from the first car to the second car.
We can distinguish three types of collisions:
You may notice that while the law of conservation of momentum is valid in all collisions, the sum of all objects' kinetic energy changes in some cases. The potential energy, however, stays the same (what is in line with the potential energy formula).
You can use our conservation of momentum calculator to consider all cases of collisions. To calculate the velocities of two colliding objects, simply follow these steps:
According to the principle of conservation of momentum, the total linear momentum of an isolated system, i.e., a system for which the net external force is zero, is constant.
In order to conserve momentum, there should be no net external force acting on the system. If the net external force is not zero, momentum is not conserved.
The recoil of a gun when we fire a bullet from it is an example of conservation of momentum. Both the bullet and the gun are at rest before the bullet is fired. When the bullet is fired, it moves in the forward direction. The gun moves in the backward direction to conserve the total momentum of the system.
The principle that makes a rocket move is the law of conservation of linear momentum. The fuel burnt in the rocket produces hot gas. The hot gas is ejected from the exhaust nozzle and goes in one direction. The rocket goes in the opposite direction to conserve momentum. |