Question

What is the importance of momentum?

Answer 1

We have to understand what momentum refers to. Momentum is defined as the product of mass of a substance to its velocity. In other words, we can say that any body in motion has momentum. If a body does not move or it's massless then it has no momentum.

Complete answer:
The importance of momentum are as follows:
(i) A law of conservation of linear and angular momentum has been formed. It states the momentum of a body before or after any event remains the same. It has a wide application in the field of Physics.
(ii) We can break or damage many things with the help of the principle of momentum. If we hit anything with very fast movement it will tend to develop a large momentum in a short amount of time. Hence the force exerted would be much more in comparison to the force if we hit it slowly.
(iii) Road accidents at high speeds are more fatal than accidents at low speeds. This is due to the reason that the momentum of vehicles running at high speeds are very high and causes a lot of damage to the vehicles and injures the passengers during the collision.
(iv) A bullet of small mass, due to its large momentum is extensively powerful because of its extremely large velocity.

Note: It must be noted that momentum is not a fundamental quantity. It is just associated with a moving body. It has no existence when the body is in the state of rest. So, it is only applicable to the objects which are in motion also having mass.