In particle physics, wave mechanics and optics, momentum transfer is the amount of momentum that one particle gives to another particle.
In the simplest example of scattering of two colliding particles with initial momenta, resulting in final momenta, the momentum transfer is given by
where the last identity expresses momentum conservation. Momentum transfer is an important quantity because is a better measure for the typical distance resolution of the reaction than the momenta themselves.
Read more about Momentum Transfer: Wave Mechanics and Optics
Famous quotes containing the word transfer:
“No sociologist ... should think himself too good, even in his old age, to make tens of thousands of quite trivial computations in his head and perhaps for months at a time. One cannot with impunity try to transfer this task entirely to mechanical assistants if one wishes to figure something, even though the final result is often small indeed.”
—Max Weber (1864–1920)