A shell is dropped from certain height an dit explodes in its path, centre of mass of the fragments will move
Answers
Lightbulb reply
Hi
The principle which lie in the heart of problem is "conservation of momentum".
Blasting and fragmentation is something in which no external force is needed. It occur due to some chemical reaction (not in all cases) going on inside the bomb.
Since no external force is there, so net change in momentum for the bomb will be zero. so all fragments will move in such a way that their net momentum (Don't forget that momentum is a vector) should remain same.
or you can also say that center of mass move with the same velocity as it is moving with before the explosion.
In this question, since bomb is at rest before explosion so even after explosion its center of mass must be at rest to conserve the momentum.
When an explosive shell travelling in a parabolic path under the effect of gravity explodes, the centre of mass of the fragments will move along the original parabolic path.