Momentum Lab Report

772 Words2 Pages

Introduction:

An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force, an object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force(Physicsclassroom.com, 2015). This law is often called "the law of inertia". This means that there is a natural tendency for objects to keep on doing what they're doing. All objects resist changes in their state of motion.

Momentum can be defined as "mass in motion." All objects have mass if the object is moving, then it has momentum. The amount of momentum that an object has is dependent upon two variables, the amount of mass moving and how fast the mass is moving(Physicsclassroom.com, 2015). Momentum depends upon the variables …show more content…

Whenever there is an interaction between two objects, a force upon each of the objects is created(Physicsclassroom.com, 2015). Forces only exist as a result of an interaction to another object.

Acceleration is the rate at which velocity changes, or how quickly an object changes its velocity. The SI unit for acceleration is m/s/s or m/s2(Sites.google.com, 2015). It is a vector quantity because velocity is a vector quantity, so direction is taken into account. Acceleration is any change in your state of motion.

Active Car Safety …show more content…

These laws are also applied to the body's within the car. The crumple zone increases the time of the collision whilst doing so absorbs a great amount of the force(Plastics-car.com, 2015). This increase in time allows for a decrease in force applied and gives the body's within the car more time to withstand a change in momentum.

Airbags :

In a collision all the passengers within a car have momentum and for momentum to be stopped it must be acted on by an opposite force. In cars the force to oppose this momentum is often the airbag. The airbag supplies an impulse, force over time (Tristanmac.tripod.com, 2015). The more time that the airbag gives for the passenger to experience an impulse the less damage inflicted on the passenger. The airbag is going to increase the time that passenger has before it comes to a complete stop. The action of doing so will inflict a lot less force on the body.

Conclusion

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