Momentum Conservation: Explosions

From High School Online Collaborative Writing

Momentum conservation for explosions is very simlar to the Momentum: Collisions. In a collison the different forces come together or bounce away from each other, but in a explosion an object is destoryed and the object breaks off into smaller piece in different directions. In both cases that Momentum conservation still holds true.Law of Conservation of Momentum is actually derived from Newton's First Law of Motion. And the equation itself actually comes from Newton's Second Law of Motion, which is P=mv.

Contents 1 Momentum 2 Momentum Conservation in a Explosion 3 Example of Momentum Conservation: Explosion Problem 4 Refrence 5 Resources

[edit] Momentum

Momentum is a basic measurement of motion. It is determine by the mass and the velocity of the object in motion. In the equation it is also referred to as the P.

[edit] Momentum Conservation in a Explosion

In a explosion, there is an internal impulse which sents different part of the system or object into different directions. All these little parts make many different vectors. And if the sum of all these vectors add up, to find the final momentum, then it should also equal to the intial momentum. The main idea is that the totalnet force much be the same as when it first starts from before the explosion and after the explosion. Because of the fact that this is a closed system with no external forces in the way, the momentum doesn't change.

[edit] Example of Momentum Conservation: Explosion Problem

All objects before and explosion, initially start at rest. After and during the explosion, the objects fly away in different directions and in different speeds. Momentum is always conserved, in this case, the intitial momentum for everything is zero. Knowing this the final momentum should be zero to.An exmaple, would be a cannon on a frictionless ground shooting as cannon ball. The initial momentum is zero, becuase nothing is moving. After the explosion inside the cannon, the cannon ball will be shot foward at a very fast speed, while the cannon itself recoils in a much slower speed, but with alot more mass. In the end the the final momentum will also end up to zero, this make the intial momentum and the final momentum the same, which shows that energy was conserved. Look at the examples shown below.

[edit] Refrence

• Momentum: Collisions
• Momentum
• Newton's Second Law of Motion
• Newton's First Law of Motion
• Law of Conservation of Momentum

[edit] Resources

• The Impulse-Momentum Change Theorem A more in-depth look on momentum.
• Conservation of momentum in explosions & recoils Some basic knowledge of this topic already described on top.
• Momentum Conservation in Explosion More info about the topic.
• Explosion and Momentum A more thorough explaination of the sample problem.
• Momentum Conservation Continued More in-depth look on momentum conservation