>>13433994I gotchu girl.
>Momentum is like the health bar of an object's motion. Say their is a monster asteroid going towards you and your machine Superman. Your goal is to stop it's movement COMPLETELY. You need to tell your machine how hard he needs to push, otherwise he pushes to hard or too soft. You know the asteroid's momentum "health bar" from the equation
Remember, velocity, and thus momentum, are contain information about the direction of movement. Therefore, to stop the asteroid and bring it's momentum health bar to zero, your superman machine needs to apply the same amount of momentum in the opposite direction.
For example, say the asteroid is 1000 kg moving 2 m/s WEST. This means the momentum of the asteroid is 2000 kg*m/s WEST, so Superman needs to give up 2000 kg*m/s EAST (which is the same as -2000 kg*m/s WEST) from HIS OWN MOMENTUM HEALTH BAR. This is important! Energy must be used for your machine to first BUILD UP momentum, then your Superman gives it up to the asteroid.
In the end, 2000-2000 = 0, so now the Asteroid has no momentum, meaning v=0.
What if Superman only gives up 1000 of his momentum? Then the momentum of the Asteroid is only reduced from 2000 to 1000, meaning it's speed is only halved, not pushed to 0.
What if Superman pushes 3000 momentum NORTH instead of EAST? Then the Asteroid is now moving 2000/(1000 kg) = 2m/s west AND 3000/(1000 kg) = 3m/s north. He didn't stop it, he just increased the momentum health bar of the asteroid in the NORTH direction.
What if you want Superman give the asteroid enough momentum that the asteroid moves in the opposite direction (east) at 2m/s? This is the same as moving the velocity from 2m/s west to -2m/s west. This is a change of 4m/s, meaning Superman needs to give up 1000kg*4m/s = 4000 EAST to the asteroid.
