Why must momentum constancy be checked direction by direction, and when does a short collision let you ignore external forces?
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The four-step strategy
List Understand, Devise a Plan, Carry Out Your Plan and Look Back, and record which objects and which questions belong to each of the first two steps.
Constancy checked one direction at a time
Record that is a vector equation, and that a vanishing -component of external force gives while other components still change.
Negligible impulse over a short interaction
Write and record the magnitude comparison against that licenses across a brief interaction.
Momentum flow diagrams and the component equation
Draw every object immediately before and immediately after the change of state with one set of unit vectors and symbols like , then equate and term by term.