Which has more momentum, a #5kg# object moving at #6m/s# or a #12kg# object moving at #2m/s#?

Question

Charlotte Aaron · Accepted Answer

The object with velocity 6m/s and with mass 5kg has more momentum.

As a quantity of motion contained in a body, momentum depends equally on the mass of the body and the velocity at which it moves. Because momentum depends on velocity, it is also a vector because, according to the definition above, momentum is zero in the absence of motion because the velocity is zero. Mathematically, momentum, #vec p# , is given by: #vec p = m*vec v# where, #m# is the mass of the object and #vec v# is the velocity with which it moves. It is therefore obvious that the object with mass 5 kg and moving at a speed of 6 m/s has more momentum than the object with mass 12 kg and moving slowly at 2 m/s when using the momentum formula mentioned above to solve the above problem.

Adam Arnold · Answer

undefined To determine which object has more momentum, we use the formula:

$$ \text{Momentum} = \text{Mass} \times \text{Velocity} $$

For the first object:
$$ \text{Momentum}_1 = 5 \, \text{kg} \times 6 \, \text{m/s} = 30 \, \text{kg m/s} $$

For the second object:
$$ \text{Momentum}_2 = 12 \, \text{kg} \times 2 \, \text{m/s} = 24 \, \text{kg m/s} $$

Therefore, the 5kg object moving at 6m/s has more momentum, with a momentum of 30 kg m/s compared to the 12kg object moving at 2m/s, which has a momentum of 24 kg m/s.