By: Namra Vohra

 Momentum is simply a quantity we can calculate. Nothing more, nothing less. It is not a separate thing unto itself, but merely a number we obtain by multiplying an object's mass by its velocity. It's a very useful concept when doing calculations because as long as a system is isolated from outside forces, the sum of the momentum of all the particles within the system doesn't change. This is what we call conservation of momentum. Momentum is a vector quantity which means it has magnitude and direction. Any moving body is said to possess momentum. Any object which is at rest has no momentum.

 Momentum is one of the key components to basketball. Momentum in basketball depends o the weight of the basketball itself and how much the velocity. Velocities SI unit is m/s. If a person is playing basketball they have to send the ball at a certain speed in order to score. The mass of the object totally determines its momentum in other words the basketball.

 For this lab we will measure the momentum of the basketball.  Step 1  First we take a basketball and measure the mass using a scale.  Step2  After measuring the mass we convert the weight to kilograms, which comes out to be a total of grams.  For the next step I stand on the surface of my desk and drop the basketball. The distance is the height of the desk and me.

 One major step is to find the velocity of the ball.  Use the formula v^2 = u^2 + 2as  v is final velocity, which is what you want to find out. u is initial velocity, which, if the object starts from rest, is 0. a is acceleration, which is gravity m/s^2. s is the distance the object has travelled.  For the last step plug the mass and velocity into the equation p=m*v.  The answer will be the momentum.