Question

A bomb at rest explodes into two pieces of unequal masses. Which of the following is necessarily true about the motion of the fragments?

Q: Answer-A bomb at rest explodes into two pieces of unequal masses. Which of the following is necessarily tru...

When a bomb at rest explodes into two pieces, momentum is conserved . Initially, the total momentum is zero , so after the explosion, the vector sum of the momenta of the two fragments must also be zero . Let Masses of fragments m1 and m2 Velocities after explosion v1 and v2 From conservation of linear momentum m1 v1 m2 v20 m1 v1 m2 v2 This implies The momenta are equal and opposite. The heavier fragment will have lower speed than the lighter one to maintain this equality. But more importantly, the total momentum remains zero even though the individual momenta are nonzero and opposite.