Momentum: A Report on the 2017 Vizient Clinical Connections Summit

Force and momentum are intimately related. Force acting over time can change momentum, and Newton's second law of motion can be stated in its most broadly applicable form in terms of momentum. Momentum can be applied to systems where the mass is changing, such as rockets, as well as to systems of constant mass. Also, momentum continues to be a key concept in the study of atomic and subatomic particles in quantum mechanics. One can consider systems with varying mass in some detail; however, the...

The term momentum is used in various ways in everyday language, most of which are consistent with the precise scientific definition. Generally, momentum implies a tendency to continue on course—to move in the same direction; we tend to speak of sports teams or politicians gaining and maintaining the momentum to win.  Momentum is also associated with great mass and speed and is often considered when talking about collisions. For example, when rugby players collide and fall to the...

Angular momentum characterizes an object's rotational motion and is defined as the moment of its linear momentum about a specified point O. When a particle moves along a curved path in the x-y plane, the scalar formulation calculates the magnitude of its angular momentum, utilizing the moment arm (d), representing the perpendicular distance from point O to the line of action of the linear momentum. Despite being scalar in formulation, angular momentum is inherently a vector quantity. Its...

In biological systems, most metabolic pathways are interconnected. The cellular respiration processes that convert glucose to ATP—such as glycolysis, pyruvate oxidation, and the citric acid cycle—tie into those that break down other organic compounds. As a result, various foods—from apples to cheese to guacamole—end up as ATP. In addition to carbohydrates, food also contains proteins and lipids—such as cholesterol and fats. All of these organic compounds are used...

The moment-of-momentum equation is a critical tool for analyzing the torque produced by the rotating blades of a wind turbine. This equation is derived by applying Newton's second law to a fluid particle, which states that the rate of change of linear momentum is equal to the external force acting on the particle.

The total change in the motion of an object is proportional to the total force vector acting on it and the time over which it acts. This product is called impulse, a vector quantity with the same direction as the total force acting on the object.
By writing Newton's second law of motion in terms of the momentum of an object and the external force acting on it, and simultaneously using the definition of the impulse vector, it can be shown that the total impulse on an object is equal to its...