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Forces of changing masses

Student 5051 8 years ago • updated by Physics Tutorial Center Staff 8 years ago • 1

I was wondering about how to evaluate the the following question:

If there is a rocket which would be losing fuel as it is projected upward, wouldn't it be losing some of mass? Therefore, wouldn't you need to evaluate it in some other way now. I see how that would be a problem to just apply F=ma. So what should I do in these cases?

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Physics Tutorial Center Staff 8 years ago

The more formal Newtons second law is

F=dp/dt. With constant mass, this is m(dv/dt), but if mass is changing, it is

m(dv/dt)+ (dm/dt)v.

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