PHYS 2211 Chapter Episode 15 and 16: Episode 15 and 16
Document Summary
Episode 15 and 16 / conservation of momentum, harmonic motion / The cartesian coordinate system is named after rene descartes. He believed that math was inspired by god, but unlike other scholars of his time he was very quiet about his beliefs. Rather than oppose the catholic church he kept his beliefs and findings secret for a very long time. Descartes started the law of inertia realizing that objects tended to resist change. Later newton would further refine this rule into p=mv. An object can be visualized, in physics, as a single point containing all of its mass, called the center of mass. Some important formulas include: = = 22 . the final momentum must equal any momentum of the parts. Thus a moving particle striking a still particle will result in two new perpendicular vectors that form the legs of a right triangle where the hypotenuse is the original vector.
