NOVA Momentum Question

[MedPR]

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If you drop an alligator off a ladder, is its momentum conserved? This was a question in the lecture but it didn't provide an answer.

 

[Pisiform]

hmm lol weird question ... I don't think so because an external force (F_gravity) is acting. However if you take earth and the crocodile both in one system ... then yes ... it will be conserved

 

[MedPR]

hmm lol weird question ... I don't think so because an external force (F_gravity) is acting. However if you take earth and the crocodile both in one system ... then yes ... it will be conserved

Yea that's what I figured. I'll get the exact wording when I can look at my book again, but it didn't say any other forces were (or were not) involved. It's just a figure with a man standing on a ladder and the alligator falling off. Strange.