Mission MC5: Momentum Conservation

Mission MC5 focuses on the application of the momentum conservation principle to analyze a colliision and determine the pre- or post-collision momentum of an object or to determine if system momentum is conserved in a given collision. The mission consists of 40 questions organized into 10 Question Groups. You must answer one question from each Question Group to complete the mission. The learning outcomes for this mission are ...
 

Learning Outcomes

• The student should be able to determine a momentum change and a total system momentum and to state what momentum conservation means.
• The student should be able to use momentum conservation to determine the final momentum or the initial momentum of an object involved in a collision.

 

Launch Mission MC5

 

Getting Help

If you are not familiar with this topic, then you should first learn about the topic using our written Tutorial or our Video Tutorial:
 

The Physics Classroom, Momentum and Its Conservation Unit, Lesson 2, Part b
 

• What is momentum?
• How can the momentum of a single object be calculated?
• How can the momentum of a system of two objects be calculated?
• When calculating the momentum of a system of two objects, would it matter that the objects are moving in opposite directions?
• How can the change in momentum of an object be calculated?
• How can pre- and post-collision momentum values be used to determine if a system of two objects demonstrates momentum conservation?
• What is an isolated system? Why is it important to a discussion of collisions?
• How can mass and velocity information for two objects be used to determine the momentum of a system of two objects?

 

Video Tutorials:

Action-Reaction and the Law of Momentum Conservation

 

Collision Analysis and Problem-Solving

 

 

Question-Specific Help

Each Question Group has its own Help page with information specific to the question. You can access the Help page from within the mission by tapping on the Help Me! icon (textbook). For your convenience, links to those pages are provided below: