Question

An object initially at rest explodes into several fragments. If no external forces act during the explosion, the center of mass of the fragments will:

Q: Answer-An object initially at rest explodes into several fragments. If no external forces act during the ex...

When no external force acts on a system, the center of mass COM of the system obeys the law of conservation of momentum. In this case The object was initially at rest. Hence, its initial total momentum was zero. Since there are no external forces, the total momentum remains zero even after the explosion. Thus, the center of mass must remain at rest or continue moving with constant velocity if it was moving initially, but here it was at rest. Even though the individual fragments move in different directions, the center of mass stays at the original position and remains at rest.