/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.11521225]

Just a quick question.
If I were to throw something that weighed 100g at a wall but during its flight the weight magically turned to 10kg. What would change? Would the wall get hit ''harder''?
I'm quite a brainlet but I've been thinking about this for the last day and I've no one to really ask about such things.

[Anonymous No.11521322]

This scenario is possible if you choose to conserve momentum. You can't have both conservation of momentum and conservation of energy in this instance, so we must choose conservation of momentum, and allow for energy to be dissipated in its magic transformation. This is an inelastic collision seen in intro physics textbooks. The mass would slow down a hundredfold, and because it slowed down, the average force imparted on the wall would be smaller (as the collision with the wall takes much longer).

[Anonymous No.11521334]

>>11521225
>magically
Since you introduced that word, everything can happen. However, let's assume that energy gets conserved: in that case the projectile will slow down as its mass increases, hitting exactly with the same force. If instead the projectile magically increases its energy with its mass, by not having its velocity affected as it changes mass, then yes, it will hit harder.