Explosions and Velocity

Savannah put a bunch of explosives inside of a 12 \(\rm{kg}\) pumpkin, which explodes in two pieces, traveling in the same direction. Piece A has mass \(m_A\) = 7 \(\rm{kg}\) and velocity \(v_A\) = 14 \(\rm{m/s}\). Piece B has mass \(m_B\) = 5 \(\rm{kg}\) and velocity \(v_B\) = 26 \(\rm{m/s}\).

Part 1

Is it true that the pumpkin must initially have had velocity \(v\) = 19.0 \(\rm{m/s}\) ?

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 \(v\) = 40 \(\rm{m/s}\)

• No, because the velocity should be \(v\) = 3.3 \(\rm{m/s/kg}\)

Attribution

Problem is licensed under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.