ABSTRACT

This chapter provides considerable importance in the study of the motion and collision of vehicles, ships and so on. It deals with defining momentum and impulse, together with Newton’s laws of motion and discusses these laws to solving practical problems in the fields of ballistics, pile drivers, etc. The chapter aims to define momentum and state its unit and examines Newton’s first law of motion. It analyses Newton’s second law of motion and also aims to define impulse and appreciate when impulsive forces occur and describes Newton’s third law of motion and impulse and impulsive force. Newton’s first law of motion states: A body continues in a state of rest or in a state of uniform motion in a straight line unless acted on by some external force. Newton showed that the motions of objects are governed by the same set of natural laws, by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler’s laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation.