Understanding Momentum and Moment of Area Concepts | Explained by Experts

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Red_CCF
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Hi

I was wondering if anyone could explain why the momentum of the center of mass of a system is different than the sum of the independent momentums of every object.

I also don't understand the concepts of the first and second moment of area. I would appreciate it if someone explained it to me.

Thanks for any help that you can provide
 
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Red_CCF said:
I was wondering if anyone could explain why the momentum of the center of mass of a system is different than the sum of the independent momentums of every object.
Why do you think it's different?
 
Doc Al said:
Why do you think it's different?

Because on a question for my homework, which asked for linear momentum of the system, I got two different answers when i did the momentum of each separately than doing the momentum of the center of mass.
 
Red_CCF said:
Because on a question for my homework, which asked for linear momentum of the system, I got two different answers when i did the momentum of each separately than doing the momentum of the center of mass.
I'd have to see the details, but I suspect you made an error.
 
Doc Al said:
I'd have to see the details, but I suspect you made an error.

If they are indeed the same then I probably did. I'll try to work out what I did wrong. Thanks.
 
Red_CCF said:
If they are indeed the same then I probably did. I'll try to work out what I did wrong. Thanks.

I think I figured out what I did but I don't really understand why. I did the change in position of the center of mass, divided it by the time interval, and multiplied the result by the total mass of the system and I got a very off answer. Can anyone explain why I can't do it this way? Thanks
 
Red_CCF said:
I think I figured out what I did but I don't really understand why. I did the change in position of the center of mass, divided it by the time interval, and multiplied the result by the total mass of the system and I got a very off answer. Can anyone explain why I can't do it this way? Thanks
You can do it that way. In order to find out where you went wrong, please describe the actual problem.