Moments are concepts in quantum physics that govern the behavior of sub-atomic particles. In the purest sense a moment would be a point, but in reality many points can be considered as moments. In physics, a moment can be described as an indivisible expression between the position and the resultant product of a single time and space. It also accounts for the fact that the real number density of Planck’s Constant is actually a function of time. In other words, the real number density of Planck’s constant, as expressed in metres per second, is a function of time.

Momentums have very interesting properties. They are indeed ‘virtual particles’ and they behave exactly like virtual particles while acting on an object. If two moments are coupled then the resultant can be thought of as a perfect vacuum. A simple example where two moments are considered is when a spring is compressed at a constant velocity in one direction and released in another direction. The spring will now be accelerated due to the transformation from tension to potential energy.

Momentum describes how a body behaves after being altered in some way. For example, a person walking past you will encounter several moments when you change direction. Each moment will produce a different amount of movement, which we labelled as momentum. When we look at the spring that was used to apply the force up until the time it was released, we note that the moment it was released had a magnitude twice the force that was applied previously (i.e. ten metres per second).

Momentum describes a lot of phenomena and it is therefore an important concept to consider when looking into how mechanics applied on objects. It is usually expressed as a power function, for example:

Let us take the example of the lever. We can use it to describe the relationship between the levers: when they are placed at their ends, the lever will give the same torque, or positive momentum. On the other hand, if they are moved closer together, this will give a negative momentum, or – in a similar way – a zero velocity. Momentum can also be derived from the arithmetic mean of the random variables, such as the number of times the system is rotating (e.g. “it should spin many times once for the distance to reach the starting point and once for the distance to reach the end”).

In our previous article, we looked at some examples of what happens when the system is put into motion in one direction, such as the rotation of a bolt clockwise. For those of you who were not yet familiar with moments, it is described by the simple equation: Momentum = velocity times the angle of rotation. The only difference between this equation and the one for random variables is the direction of the velocity. This can be handy, because it shows a clear difference between the expected value of momentum for the moving and non-moving parts. Thus, understanding the relationship between momentum and moments is essential to your programming work.