Question

Why is the law of conservation of momentum important?

Answer 1

Hint: In order to solve this question, we should know about momentum. In physics, momentum is simply defined as the product of mass of a body and the velocity vector with which its moving, here we will discuss about law of conservation of momentum and its importance.

Complete answer:
 In physics, law of conservation of momentum states that if no external force acts on a system then momentum of the system remains conserved which means the initial momentum of a system is equal to final momentum of a system.

The importance of this law of conservation of momentum is that as long as no external force acts on a body the velocity vector can be deduced after some period of time of a body if we knew its initial velocity. For example, if two bodies collide with each other having some linear momentum of this system and after collision they have some linear momentum then, according to law of conservation of momentum initial momentum will be equal to that of final momentum of the body.

In the whole universe, if no external force acts on the body, scientists use the old data of linear momentum of many celestial bodies and using this law of conservation of momentum they predict the velocity and direction of motion of these bodies.

Hence, law of conservation of momentum is important for solving many collision related problems as well as for deduction of velocity vectors of many celestial bodies knowing their initial momentums.

Note: It should be remembered that, if law of conservation was not valid in motion then it also leads to failure of law of conservation of energy and due to this universe may result in chaos in terms of energy and many celestial motion gets affected by this, conservation of momentum is one of basic laws of nature which governs the mechanics of universe.