PHYS 1A Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Airbag
Document Summary
Consider a mass spring system with a 2 kg mass attached to the spring. If compressed by from equilibrium to a position x max, what is the ratio of ke to pe when it is released and moves to. During a collision you have a change in your momentum. Why does an airbag help in accidents? week 7 page 1. In the absence of a net external force, there is no change in overall momentum. Internal forces do not affect the total momentum of a system. This is the law of conservation of momentum. For a given system (any collection of objects), the change in the total momentum is equal to the e(cid:454)ter(cid:374)all(cid:455) applied force (cid:894)i(cid:374)ter(cid:374)al forces do(cid:374)"t (cid:373)atter(cid:895) Conservation of momentum comes from newton"s 3rd law of motion - applies to all interactions. The (cid:374)ature of the i(cid:374)teractio(cid:374) force does(cid:374)"t (cid:373)atter. Momentum gained by some parts of a system is equal to momentum lost by other parts.
