## Encyclopedia > Impulse

Article Content

# Impulse

In classical mechanics, an impulse changes the momentum of an object. An impulse is calculated as the integral of force with respect to duration.

$\mathbf{I} = \int \mathbf{F} dt$

Using the definition of force yields:

$\mathbf{I} = \int \frac{d\mathbf{p}}{dt} dt$
$\mathbf{I} = \int d\mathbf{p}$
$\mathbf{I} = \Delta \mathbf{p}$

See also specific impulse.

The term can also refer to any short-duration signal such as a nerve impulse, or a notional signal used to calculate impulse response[?], in the continuous case the Dirac delta function.

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

Search Encyclopedia
 Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!

Featured Article
 Great River, New York ... American, 0.06% Native American, 0.58% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.26% from other races, and 0.97% from two or more races. 1.88% of the population are Hispanic or ...

This page was created in 37.2 ms