Question
Taking suitable examples, develop the concept of momentum.
Solution
The concept of momentum can be developed by considering the following example. Consider a tennis ball which hits a player. The tennis ball does not harm her. But, at the same time when a fast moving cricket ball hits a spectator, it may hurt him.
Similarly, a truck at rest does not harm anyone when parked along a roadside. But a truck moving even at a low speed of 5 ms–1 may kill a person standing in its path.
From the above examples, we can say that the impact produced by a moving body or the effect of motion depends both on both mass and velocity.
The product of mass and velocity of a body is called its momentum.
