Question

A car has a mass of 1000kg. The car is moving at 20.00m/s due North. A small explosion inside the car splits it into two perfect equal mass pieces each moving North. The back half of the car is at rest after the explosion. What is the momentum of the front half of the car immediately after the explosion?

A. 10,000kg m/s

B. Can't be determined

C. Zero

D. 14,142 kg m/s

E 20,000 kg m/s

Answer 1

According to law of conservation of linear momentum,

total momentum before collision=total momenrum after collision

m1u1+m2u2=m1v1+m2v2

Before collision car act as a single body and after collision it breaks in to two parts also there is no change in direction after collision hence above equation becomes,

MV=mv+m(0)

Where M is mass of car before collision and m is mass of each part after collision.

Therefore, 1000x20=mv

mv=20000kgm/s is the momentum of second part.