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Re: Impulse



George said,

Impulse is already a well-defined concept! Impulse is the total change in
momentum caused by application of a force over some time interval. It can
be found by integrating Fdt, but it's still the change in momentum.

Is this view widely held? I have interpreted the definitions of impulse
that I have seen to be the application of a force over a period of time.
Impulse causes a change in momentum but it is not exactly the same thing as
a change in momentum. An equal sign does not mean that both sides of an
equation are the same thing.

Cliff Parker

*********************************************
"It's the best possible time to be alive,
when almost everything you thought you knew
is wrong."
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in the play Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard
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George Spagna
Department of Physics
Randolph-Macon College
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e-mail: gspagna@rmc.edu
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