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FZX Student
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Does a ball falling to Earth violate conservation of momentum?
If you take the ball as your system, then gravity is an external force (as arildno stated) and the ball's momentum is not conserved. This is clearly true, as you know the speed of the ball increases.FZX Student said:Consider the ball is in mid-fall, it hasn't hit the ground yet and has not just been released. There are no external forces because gravity is providing the impulse. Is momentum conservered in this case or not?
Its the total momentum of a closed system that is conserved. Not the momentum of a particle. In your case the particle has a force acting on it and as such the momentum changes. There is no law of physics which states that the momentum of a particle is conserved. The gravitational force changs the momentum of a ball in free-fall. However, as someone explained above, the total momentum of the earth/ball system is conserved. The momentum is thereforeFZX Student said:I'm not quite sure I understand. If momentum of a system is to be conserved then pfinal = pinitial. Meaning m1v1=m2v2. The masses will cancel meaning the velocities have to equal. But they don't. If the ball doesn't hit the ground and is just falling, where is the momentum supposed to be conserved?
cparsons10 said:What about when a ball rolls down a ramp. Is conservation of momentum violated?
The law of conservation of momentum states that in a closed system, the total momentum remains constant. This means that the total amount of momentum before a collision or interaction is equal to the total amount of momentum after the collision or interaction.
As a falling object moves towards the ground, its potential energy decreases and its velocity increases. According to the law of conservation of momentum, the increase in the object's velocity is directly proportional to the decrease in its potential energy. This means that the total momentum of the falling object remains constant.
No, the law of conservation of momentum is a fundamental law of physics and has been observed to hold true in all interactions. However, in certain situations, it may seem like the law is being violated due to external forces like friction or air resistance, but in reality, the total momentum is still conserved.
The mass of an object directly affects its momentum. The greater the mass of an object, the greater its momentum will be. This means that a heavier object will have more momentum than a lighter object with the same velocity.
The conservation of momentum is important in understanding collisions because it allows us to predict the outcome of a collision based on the initial momentum of the objects involved. This helps us understand the forces at play and can be used to design safer and more efficient transportation systems, as well as other important applications in engineering and physics.