How to Show that the momentum of system consisting of football (lighter mass) and bowling ball (heavier mass) should be conserved?
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Answer:
Momentum Conservation Principle
The Law of Action-Reaction (Revisited)
Momentum Conservation Principle
Isolated Systems and Collision Analysis
Collision Analysis and Momentum Problems
Using Equations as Guides to Thinking
Momentum Conservation in Explosions
One of the most powerful laws in physics is the law of momentum conservation. The law of momentum conservation can be stated as follows.
For a collision occurring between object 1 and object 2 in an isolated system, the total momentum of the two objects before the collision is equal to the total momentum of the two objects after the collision. That is, the momentum lost by object 1 is equal to the momentum gained by object 2.
The above statement tells us that the total momentum of a collection of objects (a system) is conserved - that is, the total amount of momentum is a constant or unchanging value. This law of momentum conservation will be the focus of the remainder of Lesson 2. To understand the basis of momentum conservation, let's begin with a short logical proof.
In physics, the term conservation refers to something which doesn't change. This means that the variable in an equation which represents a conserved quantity is constant over time. It has the same value both before and after an event.
There are many conserved quantities in physics. They are often remarkably useful for making predictions in what would otherwise be very complicated situations. In mechanics, there are three fundamental quantities which are conserved. These are momentum, energy, and angular momentum. Conservation of momentum is mostly used for describing collisions between objects.
Just as with the other conservation principles, there is a catch: conservation of momentum applies only to an isolated system of objects. In this case an isolated system is one that is not acted on by force external to the system—i.e., there is no external impulse. What this means in the practical example of a collision between two objects is that we need to include both objects and anything else that applies a force to any of the objects for any length of time in the system.
If the subscripts iii and fff denote the initial and final momenta of objects in a system, then the principle of conservation of momentum says