Understanding Momentum: Comparing Mack Trucks and Small Trucks

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bower5932
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I'm trying to help my high school kid solve some momentum problems, and one of us must be missing something simple. The question is "What has more momentum a Mack truck (ie, very large object) that is still or a small truck that is moving?" I thought that momentum=mass*velocity. If this is the case, then the Mack truck would have a 0 and the small truck would have a positive number. However, my kid tells me the answer is the Mack truck. Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance.
 
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Don't think so.
 
You're right.

[tex]P=mv[/tex]
 
momentum

your are correct
movementum is defined as

P = mv

where P is linear movementum, m is mass of object and v is velocity.