How would you decrease the momentum of an object?

decrease potential energy.....through physical factors like friction....How would you decrease the momentum of an object?
This is wrong. If something is moving it has kinetic energy. You decrease the momentum with friction, but you are lowering the kinetic energy.


KINETIC energy is related to momentum through this formula:





((m*v)^2)/(2*m).... where m*v is equal to momentum. Report Abuse
How would you decrease the momentum of an object?
If you decrease its mass or its velocity (or, if you want to be really hardcore, its change in the product of mass and velocity). Velocity is a vector which has a defined negative and positive direction, so I would hit it in the negative direction. With a baseball bat.





This has the benefit of decreasing the momentum even if the object is not moving.
Newton's First Law: Every body continues in its state of rest or of uniform motion unless an implied force acts upon it.





Therefore, to decrease the momentum of a moving object, an implied force must act upon it.
force = mass*acceleration, and acceleration is equal to velocity/time. So multiply force*time and you get mass*velocity, which are the units of momentum. This force*time is called impluse and it is how you change momentum. If you want you, can also think of kinetic energy as p^2/(2m), and in this case you can see directly that when you change the kinetic energy you are changing the momentum.
Friction
by decreasin its velocity or mass
By applying an impulse in the direction opposing the direction of motion.