Setting trajectories – constraints and accumulations

A recap

Remember (from the ) that acceleration accumulates velocity and velocity accumulates displacement. The displacements predict the path something takes.

Now you can calculate the acceleration from the force and the mass, you can predict the path by following this chain of thinking: a constraint, followed by two accumulations.

The quantity of motion is best measured by momentum, which is accumulated by force, so this gives a different starting point for predicting paths.

As ever in physics, start where it's easiest.