Recent content by bigboba

sorry, i missed something out in the initial question: both carts were given one initial push but are now just relying on momentum. so it matters because the rock, be being in the cart and moving in the cart, holds part of the carts total momentum. so if it's thrown out of the cart, then that...

to clarify, the answer is all about momentum and how it is "being thrown away" when the rocks are removed. so I know this is in the right area, but I'm just trying to get it down into simple numbers. or at least a solid, and simple, explanation as to why it isn't possible to do that.

it's not the throwing sideways so much as just getting rid of mass. it's specifically sideways though, because throwing it forwards or backwards would interfere with the momentum. it's from a physics book written by an mit professor. his answer's are rubbish though as go into way too much...

momentum problem - answer doesn't work! Here's the problem: you've got two carts sliding along frictionless tracks at an equal speed, etc... as they move along 500g weights are regularly dropped onto the carts, again with equal regularity, etc... on each cart there is a worker ( same mass...