if I go down a slide but instead of carrying on to the end, I grip the sides and stop myself: where does my momentum go?

Question

I had crap science teachers so forces in physics never really made sense to me. I understand that my momentum has a kind of energy to it…so if I stop myself on the slide where does that energy go?

In: 9

Answer 1

Your momentum is transferred to the slide, which transfers it to the planet Earth. Since the Earth is inconceivably massive, the change in its motion from your small amount of momentum is immeasurably tiny.