Conservation Laws

Introduction

Conservation laws are also popularly known as laws of conservation. According to these laws, in physics, they state that a particular physical property, which is measurable in quantity, does not change over a period of time as a part of an outlying physical system. Such laws help in understanding energy, momentum, mass, electric charge and angular momentum.

Conversation of Mass

According to the conversation of mass, it says that matter cannot be created nor can it be destroyed. This helps understand that those processes which change the physical, as well as the chemical properties of substances as a part of an isolated system, leave the overall mass unchanged. According to the principle of conservation of mass, the mass of an object remains constant even though the constituent parts may rearrange themselves.

Momentum

Imagine a situation in which a fast-moving truck collides with a stationary automobile. Because of this, the automobile begins to move. As observed, in this situation, the velocity of the truck had dropped and the automobile’s velocity increased. Thus, the automobile acquired the momentum that got lost by its truck. This was just an example to give a gist about momentum. We will discuss more on this topic now. Momentum, also known as linear momentum can be explained as the product of the mass of an object along with its velocity. Thus, it can be said as the mass in motion. Through a formula, it can be explained as – Momentum = velocity*mass That is, P = v*m Where – P = Linear momentum, m = mass and v = velocity.

Law of Conservation of Momentum

According to the law of conservation of momentum, if two objects collide with each other then the overall momentum before and after the collision would remain the same on the condition that no external force is acting on the colliding objects. In situations when the net external force remains at zero the total momentum of the system is constant. This can be explained through the formula – Final momentum = Initial momentum That is, P_f = P_i.

Conservation of linear momentum and angular momentum

After understanding the basic concepts of momentum, we now jump on to our next topic which is conservation of linear momentum and conservation of angular momentum. According to the conservation of linear momentum, a particular body or a whole order of bodies in motion retains its cumulative momentum, the mass’s product velocity, until some external force has been applied. As observed, in an isolated system, no external forces can be found therefore momentum is regularly conserved. According to the conservation of angular momentum, it can be said that the angular momentum is the law according to which a body or a system which is rotating continues rotating at equal rates until some twisting force, known as torque has been applied.

Conclusion

As we have come to the conclusion of this segment, the understanding of conservation of mass, momentum, angular momentum and linear momentum has increased. As per the conservation of mass, it can be said that matter can neither be created nor can matter be destroyed, implying that the overall mass of the object remains constant although the constituent parts may rearrange themselves. Similar to the law of conservation of mass, we also understood the law of conservation of angular momentum and the law of conservation of linear momentum. Last but not least it can be said that all the laws regarding conservation of energy, momentum, as well as angular momentum, can all be figured from classical mechanics. All these laws help in explaining that physics remains constant and refrains from changing at any time, along with rotation in space and displacement in space.