Question

A basketball has a mass of 1 kg and is traveling 12 m/s.

What would happen to the velocity if the momentum of the basketball were cut in half?

Answer 1

a basketball has a mass of 1kg and is traveling 12 m/s
6 m/s

Answer 2

`6\:\mathrm{m/s}` (The velocity would also be halved)

Explanation:

The momentum of an object is given as
`p=mv` where
`m` is the mass of the object and
`v` is the velocity of the object.

Because mass is constant, if the momentum (
`p`) was cut in half, the velocity of the basketball would also be halved:

Let
`p_1` be the initial momentum and
`p_2` be the final momentum:

`(1)/(2)p_1=p_2,\\(1)/(2)mv_1=mv_2, \\\fbox{$(1)/(2)v_1=v_2$}`

Therefore, the basketball's new velocity is
`(1)/(2)\cdot 12=\fbox{$6\:\mathrm{m/s}$}`.