Average Momentum

Suppose there is a huge collection of particles whose masses ( m ) (m) and one-dimensional velocities ( v ) (v) are distributed uniformly as a function of area according to the density plot shown above. The plot is a quarter unit-disk.

What is the average particle momentum?


Note: The diagram is a distribution function/graph, not an actual physical object.


The answer is 0.15915.

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1 solution

Steven Chase
Sep 30, 2017

Take an area-weighted average of the momenta over the integration region:

ρ a v = ρ d A A \rho_{av} = \frac{\int \int \rho \, dA}{A}

Parametrizations:

m = r c o s θ v = r s i n θ ρ = m v = r 2 s i n θ c o s θ d A = r d r d θ m = r \, cos\theta \\ v = r \, sin\theta \\ \rho = m v = r^2 \, sin\theta \, cos\theta \\ dA = r \, dr \, d\theta

Integral:

ρ d A = 0 π 2 0 1 ( r 2 s i n θ c o s θ ) r d r d θ = 0 1 r 3 d r 0 π 2 s i n θ c o s θ d θ = 1 4 1 2 \int \int \rho \, dA = \int_0^{\frac{\pi}{2}} \int_0^1 (r^2 \, sin\theta \, cos\theta) r \, dr \, d\theta \\ = \int_0^1 r^3 \, dr \int_0^{\frac{\pi}{2}} sin\theta \, cos\theta \, d\theta = \frac{1}{4} \frac{1}{2}

Final result:

ρ a v = ρ d A A = 1 4 1 2 π 4 = 1 2 π 0.15915 \rho_{av} = \frac{\int \int \rho \, dA}{A} = \frac{\frac{1}{4} \frac{1}{2}}{\frac{\pi}{4}} = \frac{1}{2 \pi} \approx \boxed{0.15915}

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