Take the tour ×  I am trying my hand at creating a simple 2d
physics engine right now, and I'm running into some problems
figuring out how to incorporate momentum into movement of a
spaceship.  If I am moving in a given direction at a certain
velocity, I am able to currently update the position of my ship
easily (Position += Direction * Velocity). However, if the ship
rotates at all, and I recalculate the direction (based on the
new angle the ship is facing), and accelerate in that direction,
how can I take momentum into account to alter the "line" that
the ship travels? Currently the ship changes direction
instantaneously and continues at its current velocity in that
new direction when I press the thrust button. I want it to be a
more gradual turning motion so as to give the impression that
the ship itself has some mass.  If there is already a nice post
on this topic I apologize, but nothing came up in my searches.
Let me know if any more information is needed, but I'm hoping
someone can easily tell me how I