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momentum before force (was: friction)



Raacc@aol.com says:
...
It seems to me that velocity should be introduced followed immediately by
momentum. Then acceleration and net force can be defined as the slopes of
the velocity and momentum graphs respectively.)
...

When you teach this sequence, how do you justify momentum before force has
been introduced? Using a qualitative idea of force?

I can maybe imagine doing this, but I can't see how to justify that
momentum is (m*v) (rather than, say, (m^2 *v)), since I don't know how to
test it. Maybe you do conservation of momentum?

--
--James McLean
jmclean@chem.ucsd.edu
post doc
UCSD