Momentum - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

mo·men·tum

Audio Help [moh-men-tuh

m] Pronunciation Key

–noun, plural -ta

Audio Help [-tuh] Pronunciation Key, -tums.

1.	force or speed of movement; impetus, as of a physical object or course of events: The car gained momentum going downhill. Her career lost momentum after two unsuccessful films.

2.	Also called linear momentum. Mechanics. a quantity expressing the motion of a body or system, equal to the product of the mass of a body and its velocity, and for a system equal to the vector sum of the products of mass and velocity of each particle in the system.

3.	Philosophy. moment (def. 7).

[Origin: 1690–1700; < L mōmentum; see moment

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Momentum

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

mo·men·tum Audio Help (mō-měn'təm) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. mo·men·ta (-tə) or mo·men·tums

Symbol p Physics A measure of the motion of a body equal to the product of its mass and velocity. Also called linear momentum.
1. Impetus of a physical object in motion.
2. Impetus of a nonphysical process, such as an idea or a course of events: The soaring rise in interest rates finally appeared to be losing momentum.
Philosophy An essential or constituent element; a moment.

[Latin mōmentum, movement, from *movimentum, from movēre, to move; see meuə- in Indo-European roots.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
momentum

1699, "quantity of motion of a moving body," from L. momentum "movement, moving power" (see moment). Fig. use dates from 1782.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

momentum
noun
1.	an impelling force or strength; "the car's momentum carried it off the road"
2.	the product of a body's mass and its velocity; "the momentum of the particles was deduced from meteoritic velocities"

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
momentum [məˈmentəm] noun

the amount or force of motion in a moving body

Arabic:	زَخَم، قُوَّة دافِعَه
Chinese (Simplified):	动量，动力
Chinese (Traditional):	動量，動力
Czech:	hybnost
Danish:	fart
Dutch:	vaart
Estonian:	impulss
Finnish:	liikemäärä
French:	quantité de mouvement
German:	der Impuls
Greek:	ορμή, φόρα, κεκτημένη ταχύτητα
Hungarian:	mozgásmennyiség; nyomaték
Icelandic:	skriðþungi
Indonesian:	momentum
Italian:	(quantità di moto)

Japanese:	運動量
Korean:	타성, 여세, 운동량
Latvian:	kustības daudzums
Lithuanian:	judėjimo kiekis, varomoji jėga
Norwegian:	fart, styrke, drivkraft
Polish:	impet
Portuguese (Brazil):	momento
Portuguese (Portugal):	impulso
Romanian:	moment (mecanic)
Russian:	инерция движущегося тела
Slovak:	hybnosť
Slovenian:	gonilna sila
Spanish:	impulso, ímpetu
Swedish:	rörelsemängd, styrka, kraft, fart
Turkish:	hız

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

momentum Audio Help (mō-měn'təm) Pronunciation Key
Plural momenta or momentums
A vector quantity that expresses the relation of the velocity of a body, wave, field, or other physical system, to its energy. The direction of the momentum of a single object indicates the direction of its motion. Momentum is a conserved quantity (it remains constant unless acted upon by an outside force), and is related by Noether's theorem to translational invariance. In classical mechanics, momentum is defined as mass times velocity. The theory of Special Relativity uses the concept of relativistic mass. The momentum of photons, which are massless, is equal to their energy divided by the speed of light. In quantum mechanics, momentum more generally refers to a mathematical operator applied to the wave equation describing a physical system and corresponding to an observable; solutions to the equation using this operator provide the vector quantity traditionally called momentum. In all of these applications, momentum is sometimes called linear momentum. See also angular momentum , impulse.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
momentum

In physics, the property or tendency of a moving object to continue moving. For an object moving in a line, the momentum is the mass of the object multiplied by its velocity (linear momentum); thus, a slowly moving, very massive body and a rapidly moving, light body can have the same momentum. (See Newton's laws of motion.)

Note: Figuratively, momentum can refer to the tendency of a person or group to repeat recent success: “The Bears definitely have momentum after scoring those last two touchdowns.”

[Chapter:] Physical Sciences and Mathematics

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Momentum

Mo"ment\, n. [F. moment, L. momentum, for movimentum movement, motion, moment, fr. movere to move. See Move, and cf. Momentum, Movement.]

1. A minute portion of time; a point of time; an instant; as, at thet very moment.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. --1 Cor. xv. 52.

2. Impulsive power; force; momentum.

The moments or quantities of motion in bodies. --Berkley.

Touch, with lightest moment of impulse, His free will. --Milton.

3. Importance, as in influence or effect; consequence; weight or value; consideration.

Matters of great moment. --Shak.

It is an abstruse speculation, but also of far less moment and consequence of us than the others. --Bentley.

4. An essential element; a deciding point, fact, or consideration; an essential or influential circumstance.

5. (Math.) An infinitesimal change in a varying quantity; an increment or decrement. [Obs.]

6. (Mech.) Tendency, or measure of tendency, to produce motion, esp. motion about a fixed point or axis.

Moment of a couple (Mech.), the product of either of its forces into the perpendicular distance between them.

Moment of a force. (Mech.) (a) With respect to a point, the product of the intensity of the force into the perpendicular distance from the point to the line of direction of the force. (b) With respect to a line, the product of that component of the force which is perpendicular to the plane passing through the line and the point of application of the force, into the shortest distance between the line and this point. (c) With respect to a plane that is parallel to the force, the product of the force into the perpendicular distance of its point of application from the plane.

Moment of inertia, of a rotating body, the sum of the mass of each particle of matter of the body into the square of its distance from the axis of rotation; -- called also moment of rotation and moment of the mass.

Statical moment, the product of a force into its leverage; the same as moment of a force with respect to a point, line, etc.

Virtual moment. See under Virtual.

Syn: Instant; twinkling; consequence; weight; force; value; consideration; signification; avail.

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