v 18 Conservation Laws —= P= MV+ my = constant, a) ‘where v isthe unknown velocity of the wrench. Since the system was initially at rest, we know that P = 0 ‘for alltime. Wethen deduce 123) ‘without needing to use Newtow’s second aw or acy other diferent equation, . Rockets Coa Inthe preceding example the astronaut gains velocity in a ditetion opposite tothe direction in which she ‘throws the wrench, thereby conserving overall momentum. Arocket behaves exact thesame way, for exactly ‘the same reagan, except the single throw ofa wrench Is replace by the continuous exhaust of burned fuel streaming out ftom the combustion chamber atthe rear ofthe rocket. Figure 1.13 shaws the rocket moving tothe sight in gravity tee empty space; there are no extemal forces, sa the total momentum ofthe rocket pls expelled combustion gases must be conserved, At time, shown in Figur 1a), the rocket (inducing onboard fuel) has mass m and velocty v. Sight later, at timer +- At, asshown in Figure 113(6),therocket hasmass m + Am (Where 2m s negate, since the rocket bas expelled some fut inthe exhaust) and ‘locity y + Av. Inaddition theres now an exhaust mass —Am = | am, where — Amis positive. Note that our system of rocket plus exhaust has constant mass, which! essential ere, because it cnly makes sense ‘oconserve momentum fora system in which the mass stays the same What isthe velocity ofthe bit of exhaust | Arn] inthe second figure? We wl suppose that ts veloc is relative tothe rocket, called the exhaust elo, directed in the backwards direction, and so inthe inertial ‘rae in which we ae viewing the rocket the rocket has velo v (or + Av) tothe right — it wil make 1 diflerence which we chonse ~so the it of exhaust has velocty u — tothe lef from our point of view. Note that at some Instant the rocket happens to be maving tothe right at speed urelative to us, then the bit of exhaust will be at restin our frame; ifthe rockets moving faster than u, the bt of exhaust will actually bemoving tothe ight, ince — vibe negatire) a time ¢ » +e rr —Am =|Am| et de time ¢ + At QT A rocket and expelled exhaust (a) at time # and (b) at time 1+ Av,1 Newtonian Partie Mechanics ‘We can now conserve momentum between times tand# + At. Thats: (m+ Am)(v+ Av) — (—Am)(u —¥) =m (U7) mAv+ Am Av + Amu = 0. um Dividing by the brief time interval At and taking the limit At —+ 0, the doubly small term AmAv goes ‘away inthe lit, 0 we find that the equation af motion Is don iz (178) This lacks wery similar to Nevtors second law in the form mdy/dt’ — F, erceptthat here the mass ofthe ‘rocket changes with time, The "force" term on the rights called the thrust ofthe rocket: af an That = =, (79) ‘which ts positive because the rocket mass is decreasing with time as its fuel is burned. The equation makes. {ntutve sense: the thrusts proportional ob the exaust weloct andthe rate a whic the fuels bumed ‘We can now itegrae the rockets equation of motion if we assume thatthe exhaust velocity uiscanstant First, multiply Eq. (1.78) by dt and divide by mr: this removes ¢ as a variable, and we are left with dr) = -=tudm/m. The remaining variables v and m have been separated, so we can integrate both sides: fo-alt (10 fs Im v= Wt Iam /m), cst ‘which ts often called the rocket equation. If, for example, 90% af the inital mass of the rocket consists of fuel, wile only 100 payloadthen when all the fuel has burnecthe rocket has only 10% of Rs orginal mass, so its velaity has increased by siving aval) anf) ~ r-w=en( ) <2 (aa) 20 om | the end, the rockets traveling faster than the fuel speed elative othe rocket. a Finding the motion of a rocket is an example of a “variable mass” problem, called that because the mass of the object of interest (the rocket in this case) changes mass as time goes on. There are dozens of analogous problems, including for example (i) a hailstone that gains mass with time, freezing and accreting water molecules inthe air as it falls; (ii)a jet aircraft whose mass increases as its wings ice up while its mass decreases as fuel is burned; (ii) arailroad boxcar moving along a horizontal track, open at the top and gaining mass as rain falls in, while lasing massFl 18 Conservation Laws ductto a hole in the bottom of the boxcar through which water is leaking. Note that the total mass of the system does not change; it simply moves from one part of the system to another. @ dm, fa) ) Ame time t + At (QI A laty open boxcar ina rainstorm. (a) At time ¢ the boxcar is moving at velocity v and some raindrops of mass Am, are about to fallin, with no horizontal component of veleity (b) Attime + Arthe boxcar Is moving at velocity v 4+ Av. Theraindrops A.m, have fallen, and a quantity of water A my has leaked out still moving with horizontal velocity v. The technique for solving such problems is to use Newton's second law F — dp/dt in the form Ay — FAL over the short time interval At for a system whase mass is the same at time {+ At as it wats at time t, That is, We can onily be confident that / = dp/dris valid if the system has fixed mass. So in the case of the boxcar, for example, we draw two pictures (see Figure 1.14). The first at time / shows aboxcar ‘of mass M moving to the right at speed v plus a small quantity of rain of mass Ami, falling with no horizontal velocity (its vertical velocity is imelevant here). Thus, the horizontal momentum of the system at time is simply po ~ Mv. The second picture is at time r+ At, and shows a boxear of mass M+ Simp — Am, indicating thot the boxcar has gained mass Am, due to the falling rain, while losing mass Amy due to the leak. In this picture there is also a mass Am, the leaked mass, moving to the right at speed », because it “remembers” the speed it had just before it leaked ‘out by the law of inertia, Newton's first law. The momentum of the entire system ate + Aris py = (M+ Am, — Sme)(v+ Av) + Amev. Now if we pretend there is no horizontal force on the system duc to air resistance or friction with the tracks, the total momentum of the fixed-mass system is the same at 1+ Aras it was at time +. Therefore, setting pi = po: (M+ Am, — Amp)(v + Av) + Amer = Mv. (1.83)2 1 Newtonian Particle Mechanics Now cancel the My terms, divide by Ar, and take the limit Ar — 0. The result is. the differential equation of motion of the boxcar: Iv din, we =D where Ae = Se, (1.84) Here, A, is the rate at which rain is falling in, Note that this equation looks just like the equation for the bacterium subject to a linear drag force. The cause of the “drag” here is that the boxcar has to speed up the horizontal velocity of the raindrops that fall in, and the rain reacts back upon the boxcar tending to slow it down. Appearances may be deceiving, however, because in the boxcar problem -M changes with time unless the rate of rainfall happens to be exactly the same as the rate of leakage. Nevertheless, we can solve the problem completely for v(#) and then x(1) if we assume the rates of rainfall and leaking are both constants, 4, and Ay (see the Problems section at the end of this chapter). We can also find the differential equation of motion if there is air resistance or friction by adding forces to Ap = Fr, and perhaps solve the equation exactly if F has a sufficiently simple form. Angular Momentum Let a position vector r extend from an origin of coordinates to a particle, as shown in Figure 1.15. The angular momentum of the particle is defined to be f=rxp, (1.85) the veetor cross product of r with the particle's momentum p. Note that in a given inertial frame the angular momentum of the particle depends not only on properties. of the particle itself, namely its mass and velocity, but also upon our choice of origin. = Thepositin vector for a particle. Angular momentum fs aways defined with respect toa chosen point from where the position vector ariginates.