Question

A firecracker sitting on the ground explodes into two pieces. Immediately after the explosion, one of the pieces has momentum of 0.5 kg·m/s in the east direction. What is the momentum of the other piece?

Answer 1

Answer:

other part will move with momentum 0.5 kg m/s towards west

Explanation:

As we know that the during the explosion event the time interval is very small and there is no impulsive force on the firecracker during this time

so here we can say that the momentum will remains conserved during the this event

now if the initial momentum of the firecracker is zero

then the final momentum must be zero

so here we can say

$P_1 + P_2 = 0$

$P_1 = 0.5 kg m/s$ towards east

now from above equation

$P_2 = - P_1 = -0.5 kg m/s$

so the other part will move with momentum 0.5 kg m/s towards west