Question

A cannon and a supply of cannonballs are inside a sealed railroad car of length L, as in Fig. 7-33. 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

Answer 1

Initially let n cannonballs with a total mass of m be to the left of the center of mass at L /2 and the mass of the car at L/2

x1 = [-m / (m + M)] * L / 2 is the original position of the CM

x2 = (m (x + L/2) + M x) / (m + M) * L/2 final position of CM with all cannon balls to the right

[-m x - m L / 2 + m x - M x] / (M + m) * L/2

= - ( m L / 2 + M x) / (m + M) * L/2 = Xcm

Check the math, but maximum distance occurs when the cannonballs of mass m move from -L/2 to L/2 and the car of mass M moves from zero to -x