Recoil being another term for mass. That force, applied to a mass, creates an acceleration, which when applied over time, changes the velocity of a mass. According to Newton's second law, the law of momentum -- changing the velocity of the mass changes its momentum, (mass multiplied by velocity). It is important to understand at this point that velocity is not simply speed. Velocity is the speed of a mass in a particular direction. In a very technical sense, speed is a scalar (mathematics), a magnitude, and velocity is a vector (physics), magnitude and direction. Newton's third law, known as conservation
Binary mass function hole), the mass function becomes formula_33 and since formula_34 for formula_35, the mass function gives a lower limit on the mass of the unseen object 2. In general, for any formula_20 or formula_3, formula_38 In an orbit with eccentricity formula_39, the mass function is given by formula_40 If the accretor in an X-ray binary has a minimum mass that significantly exceeds the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit (the maximum possible mass for a neutron star), it is expected to be a black hole. This is the case in Cygnus X-1, for example, where the radial velocity of the companion star has been measured.