What Do You Understand By Impulse In Physics?

According to the definition of momentum of a body, we may observe:

Momentum = mass x velocity

This implies that a moving body can have a large momentum if its mass is large or velocity is large, or both. A heavy truck has more momentum than that of a car moving in a same velocity. A bullet, despite its small mass, possesses a large momentum due to very high speed. It is a well known fact that it is harder to stop an object having a large momentum that one with a small momentum. When a car or a bullet crashes into a wall, a large force is exerted against the wall. This force arises due to the change in momentum. It can be seen from Newton's second law of motion that

Force x time = change in momentum

The quantity F x t is called impulse. Thus, when a fast moving car dashes against a wall, it comes to rest and its momentum becomes zero. This large change of momentum imparts high impulse to the wall. Since the car comes to rest suddenly, that is, the time of impact is short the force of impact is very large.

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