What does the law of conservation of momentum mean?

Answer 1

It means that in a collision (even an inelastic collision) total momentum after the collision is the same as total momentum before the collision.

Momentum before = momentum after #m_1*u_1 + m_2*u_2 = m_1*v_1 + m_2*v_2# where the u terms are initial velocity and the v terms are velocity after the collision.

If the 2 become stuck together, then #v_1 = v_2# so we can simplify the above formula to

#m_1*u_1 + m_2*u_2 = (m_1 + m_2)*v#

I hope this helps, Steve

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Answer 2

Nathan Ashcroft

The law of conservation of momentum states that in a closed system, the total momentum before a collision is equal to the total momentum after the collision, provided no external forces act on the system. In other words, momentum is conserved in collisions, meaning it remains constant if there are no external forces acting on the system.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.