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So I know that a force will change the magnitude of velocity if it is at an angle other that 90 degrees. If the force is perpendicular to the velocity it will cause the path of the object to curve in a circular motion and the magnitude will remain constant. My problem is that that is all I know.

I'm working on a program to model a charged particle in a magnetic field. I'm using the equation for the Lorentz force to calculate the force on the particle but I don't know where to go from there. I have searched online with no success. All I can find is a general description of how a force will change velocity.

My question is how does a force vector affect a velocity vector mathematically and how can I use a known force and velocity to determine a new velocity?

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This question is off-topic here. A better place to ask would be the physics stackexchange at physics.stackexchange.com. – Pieter Naaijkens Nov 16 2011 at 7:58
Thanks I'll as it there...I'm really stuck on this >.< – Falko Nov 16 2011 at 8:03
Newton's law of motion. – Peter Dalakov Nov 16 2011 at 8:33
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It is off topic, so I'll vote to close, but perhaps I can add something helpfult. You probably have $F=qv\times B$ from Lorentz and $F=mv'$ from Newton. So you get a differential equation in $v'= (q/m) v\times B $ which you would need to integrate, perhaps numerically in your program. – Donu Arapura Nov 16 2011 at 10:34
What I first thought you were asking, based on the title, was the converse direction: (how) does velocity determine force-of-impact. The standard exercise is the following. Suppose there is a highway accident in which a semi truck and a compact car collide. Which vehicle exerts the greater force on the other? How does this answer relate to other measurements, e.g. the acceleration of each vehicle, the amount of force experienced by the drivers, etc.? – Theo Johnson-Freyd Nov 16 2011 at 18:46

closed as off topic by Andres Caicedo, Bruce Westbury, Felipe Voloch, Tony Huynh, Donu Arapura Nov 16 2011 at 10:34

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