A plastic ball and a clay ball of equal masses, travelling in the same direction with equal speeds, strike against a vertical wall. From which ball does the wall receive a greater amount of momentum?

Question

Philoid · Accepted Answer

The amount of momentum that an object has depends on two physical quantities: the mass and the velocity of the moving object in the frame of reference.

We know,

p = m × v

where p is the momentum, m is the mass and v is the velocity.

Since, in the above case both the mass and velocity of clay ball and plastic ball are same and they are travelling in the same frame of reference their momentum will be equal.

Thus, the wall will receive equal momentum from both plastic and clay ball.