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A cannon and a supply of cannonballs are inside a sealed railroad car of length L, as in Fig. The cannon fires to the right; the car recoils to the left. The cannonballs remain in the car after hitting the far wall. (a) After all the cannonballs have been fired, what is the greatest distance the car can have moved from its original position? (b) What is the speed of the car after all the cannonballs have been fired?

A cannon and a supply of cannonballs are inside a sealed railroad car of length L, as in Fig. The cannon fires to the right; the car recoils to the left. The cannonballs remain in the car after hitting the far wall. (a) After all the cannonballs have been fired, what is the greatest distance the car can have moved from its original position? (b) What is the speed of the car after all the cannonballs have been fired?

Grade:11

2 Answers

Kevin Nash
askIITians Faculty 332 Points
8 years ago
(a) The maximum distance that the car can move by maintaining the state of its center of mass is equal to the length of the railroad car, which is L. When the car moves a distance by L, the cannonballs does not move at all thereby maintaining the position of the center of mass of system.Therefore, the maximum distance travelled by the railroad car is L .
(b) When all the balls are fired, the car will come to rest so that the position of the center of mass is still maintained.
Koshimo
13 Points
6 years ago
(a) Assume the car is massless. Then moving the cannonballs is moving the center of mass, unless the cannonballs don’t move but instead the car does. How far? L. (b) Once the cannonballs stop moving so does the rail car.

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