What is Momentum and Inertia - the mindfulness explanation to physical phenomenon

Newtonian Physics.

We can get back to Newtonian physics for the first part of this. But for a broder meaning of momentum and inertia we will next look at a child.

A mass is motion, and has momentum. Which can be represented by the equation, momentum = mass × velocity. In simple terms higher the velocity more momentum it has. Do you know, in contact sports like rugby, the ones who are successful, should either have bigger mass or ability to gain faster speed. Having both would be a great advantage over opponents. To change the momentum you need an external force. And in this case a tackle by the opposing team. Bigger the momentum a player has, the less likely he will be stopped. And bigger the mass inertia is high. Inertia is the resistance an object has to change its motion.

Rugby: https://unsplash.com/@craigboudreaux

Examples of Momentum in Life.

There are many simple examples. Faster a bullet will travel longer. Bigger airplanes will need a longer runway. Bigger the ship, slower the speed it travels.

I can go on talking about momentum and inertia in physics. But this would be a replication of a wiki article if I do that. Which serves no purpose. I am sure you would check that page if you are aiming to solve a physics problem. But this exercise is about solving problems in life.

Think about doing something. When we have already started doing something, the momentum which we gained in the beginning will help us to finish effortlessly. And you may find it hard to stop. Isn't it another kind of momentum? It seems "the flow" state explained by mihaly csikszentmihalyi is none other than this kind of momentum. There is no place to be distracted by other things as at greater speeds there is no lateral thinking.

But all these are ways to explain momentum as a phenomena of nature. But there is another way to understand momentum. Which is the mindfulness way. This happened to me the other day.

Heavy ship with inertia : https://unsplash.com/@thanasis_p

What is momentum? Mindfulness on Momentum

My daughter was running inside the house and she crashed on the couch. And she said, "Father look, I cannot stop, when I am running, why?" And I said, "ah that's because of your momentum". I could not explain further than that. I didn't even try. I am sure if I took time I could have taught about mass and velocity products. Was I lazy? I think now.

Instead we can notice even without not knowing about mass, velocity and momentum itself how can someone know momentum. Why? Why can someone know momentum without even knowing the words?

That is because momentum is not a thing we see in things. It is a thing we feel. This is mindfulness when applied to momentum. Someone running can feel momentum in their body as a feeling. And this feeling is more important than actual knowledge. If we are unable to detect this, I am sure every 100 meters Olympic dash would end up in players crashing on the arena against the wall. Even you would bump into every door everyday. And human race would not survive if it wasn't for the ability to recognise momentum. Labelling it only came after newton. But even monkeys know the momentum. Would you not agree?

Once we have the feeling of momentum and label it as such, we can observe this in external objects. We can look at a slowly speeding jumbo jet on Heathrow runaway and say "that jet is slow to take up speed, it has more inertia than a smaller plane" I am sure you can never know the real "momentum" in it unless you become the jumbo jet. But that is what we do when we say the above. We become the jet in our own minds. And this is just a relative assumption.

Have you ever thought about this? The remarkable ability of the mind to externalise things which are otherwise originated from within?

So next time, when someone talks about momentum, of objects. Make it a habit to look inside and see the momentum within yourself, and recognise it is not in the car that you are trying to push. It is the feeling of resistance that you feel now, when you are pushing it.

"Who looks ouside dreams, who look inside awakens" Carl Jung