Conservation of Momentum
This principle is a consequence of Newton’s second and third laws of motion.
In an isolated system (i.e. a system having no external force), mutual forces (called internal forces) between pairs of particles in the system causes momentum change in individual particles.
Let a bomb be at rest, then its momentum will be zero. If the bomb explodes into two equal parts, then the parts fly off in exactly opposite directions with same speed, so that the total momentum is still zero. Here, no external force is applied on the system of particles (bomb).
A shell of mass 10 kg is moving with a velocity of `10 ms^(-1)` when it blasts and forms two parts of mass 9 kg and 1 kg respectively. If the first mass is stationary, the velocity of the second is
Options:
(a) `1ms^(-1)`
(b) `10 ms^(-1)`
(c) `100 ms^(-1)`
(d) `1000 ms^(-1)`