Name: _______________________________
Momentum and Its Conservation – Practice
Find the missing variable(s).
1.
5.0 kg
2.
3.0 m/s
p=
_____
3.0 m/s
p = 21 kg m/s

m
3. Find the momentum of a 2.0 kg mass when v  5.0 î  2.5 ĵ
.
s
4. A 1.2 kg ball drops vertically onto a floor, hitting with a speed of 25 m/s. It rebounds with
an initial speed of 10 m/s.
A. What impulse acts on the ball during the contact?
B. If the ball is in contact with the floor for 0.020 s, what is the magnitude of the
average force on the floor from the ball?
5. Suppose a gangster sprays Superman's chest with 3.0 g bullets at the rate of 100
bullets/min, and the speed of each bullet is 500 m/s. Suppose too that the bullets rebound
straight back with no change in speed. What is the magnitude of the average force on
Superman's chest?
6. A 5.0 kg toy car can move along an x axis. The force on the
car in the x-direction is given by the graph. The car begins at
rest at time t = 0. The scale on the Fx axis is set by Fxs = 5.0 N.

In unit-vector notation, what is p at:
A. t = 4.0 s?
B. t = 9.0 s?
7. A 91 kg man lying on a surface of negligible friction shoves a 68 g stone away from himself,
giving it a speed of 4.0 m/s. What speed does the man acquire as a result?
8. A brick of mass 6.0 kg is released from rest at
the top of a slanted roof that is 4.0 m long and
angled at 50o. The coefficient of friction
between the brick and the roof is 0.85.
4.0 m
A. Draw a free body diagram of the forces on
the brick.
3.0 m
B. Calculate the speed of the brick when it
reaches the bottom edge of the roof.
C. A wagon containing a box is at rest on the ground below the roof so that the brick falls
a vertical distance of 3.0 m and lands and sticks in the center of the box. The total
mass of the wagon and the box is 12 kg (not including the brick). Calculate the
horizontal speed of the wagon immediately after the brick lands in it.
9. A bullet of mass 10 g strikes a ballistic pendulum of mass 2.0 kg. The center of mass of the
pendulum rises a vertical distance of 12 cm. Assuming that the bullet remains embedded in
the pendulum, calculate the bullet's initial speed.
10. A 10 g bullet moving directly upward at 1000 m/s strikes
and passes through the center of mass of a 5.0 kg block
initially at rest. The bullet emerges from the block
moving directly upward at 400 m/s. To what maximum
height does the block then rise above its initial position?
Center of Mass
11. The figure to the right shows a three-particle system, with
masses m1 = 3.0 kg, m2 = 4.0 kg, and m3 = 8.0 kg. The scales
on the axes are set by xs = 2.0 m and ys = 2.0 m.
A. What is the x-coordinate of the system’s center of
mass?
B. What is the y-coordinate of the system’s center of mass?
C. If m3 is gradually increased, does the center of mass of the system shift toward or
away from that particle, or does it remain stationary?
12. Three uniform thin rods, each of length L = 22 cm, form
an inverted U. The vertical rods each have a mass of 14 g,
while the horizontal rod has a mass of 28 g. What are the
x- and y-coordinates of the system's center of mass?
[Note: The top left hand corner of the table is (0,0).]
13. A. Write the momentum of this system in unit
vector notation?
4.0 m/s
5.0 kg
5.0 kg
B. What is the magnitude of the momentum of the system?
3.0 m/s
Solutions:
1. 15 kg m/s
2. 7.0 kg m/s
i - 5.0 ˆ
j kgm/s
3. p = 10 ˆ
4. A. 42 kg m/s
B. 2.1 x 103 N
5. 5.0 N
i kgm/s
6. A. 30 ˆ
i kgm/s
B. 30 ˆ
7. 3.0 x 10-3 m/s
8. A.
Ff
FN
B. 4.2 m/s
C. 0.89 m/s
Fg
9. 310 m/s
10. 0.073 m
11. A. xcm = 1.1 m
B. ycm = 1.3 m
C. towards
12. xcm = 11 cm
ycm = -5.5 cm
i + 20 ˆ
j kgm/s
13. A. p = 15 ˆ
B. 25 kg m/s