Today, in my AP class, we were going over linear momentum. One of my
students asked the question "What determines how much momentum is
transferred to another object?" We went over ideas such as the
relationship between the masses, etc. We even "proved" that an object
moving in a straight line that strikes an object of equal mass wil come
to rest. However, this student was persistant. The question of "why"
kept on coming up.
What he was communicating was a desire to understand the phenomenon and
a mathematical proof was not satisfying. (note the subjective words like
"satisfying and understand)
I am beginning to feel like the Cardinals that observed Galileo's
telescope...I see but I don't really believe.
How can one explain, phenomenologically (wow) what determines the amount
of momentum transferred to another object. Or must we rest on "the
equation says so and the equation is a model of reality."