Re: [Phys-l] Phys-l Digest, Vol 54, Issue 3

[Steve Spicklemire <steve@spvi.com>]

For what it's worth the Matter and Interactions text does introduce  
momentum with it's relativistically correct definition:

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~rwchabay/mi/

but then use p=mv when v<<c. My students didn't seem to have a  
problem with it. Of course these guys also avoid F=ma, but rather use:

dp = F*dt

and focus on momentum change, rather than acceleration. It worked out  
pretty well for my class! They don't get as much 'kinematics' time as  
they might in a more  traditional treatment, but they had a good  
grasp of the relationship between force and momentum change.

-steve

On Jul 3, 2009, at 2:17 AM, phys-l-request@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu  
wrote:

> But who chooses it when momentum is introduced?  I can't think of  
> any text
> that I've seen that doesn't define momentum as mv.