Explosions and Velocity

Explosions and Velocity#

Aliyah put a bunch of explosives inside of a 7 \(\rm{kg}\) pumpkin, which explodes in two pieces, traveling in the same direction. Piece A has mass \(m_A\) = 5 \(\rm{kg}\) and velocity \(v_A\) = 31 \(\rm{m/s}\). Piece B has mass \(m_B\) = 2 \(\rm{kg}\) and velocity \(v_B\) = 14 \(\rm{m/s}\).

Part 1#

Is it true that the pumpkin must initially have had velocity \(v\) = 26.0 \(\rm{m/s}\) ?

Answer Section#

  • Yes, because of conservation of momentum

  • No, because we have not accounted for how the explosion might have changed the momentum of the pumpkin.

  • No, because the velocity should be \(v\) = 45 \(\rm{m/s}\)

  • No, because the velocity should be \(v\) = 6.4 \(\rm{m/s/kg}\)

Attribution#

Problem is licensed under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
The Creative Commons 4.0 license requiring attribution-BY, non-commercial-NC, and share-alike-SA license.

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