6.0 Impulse

6.1 Instantaneous impulse

If a very large force acts on a body for a very short interval of time, then product of the force and the time is known as impulse.

Mathematically, $$\begin{equation} \begin{aligned} \overrightarrow I = \int {\overrightarrow F dt} \\ \overrightarrow I = \int {\frac{{d\overrightarrow p }}{{dt}}} dt \\ \overrightarrow I = \Delta \overrightarrow p \quad ...(i) \\\end{aligned} \end{equation} $$

Therefore, impulse is equal to the change in the linear momentum $\left( {\overrightarrow I } \right)$

Note: Impulse is a vector quantity.