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jcruise322
- 36
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Homework Statement
Is it possible for the respective angular momenta of each individual particle in a system to be zero, but the system's collective angular momentum be nonzero?
For example, a puck on a frictionless air table moves (without spinning) toward a point on a rod that is not the center of mass of the rod, and orthogonal to the puck's direction of velocity. The puck strikes and sticks to the rod, causing the system to spin. The angular momentum of the puck and the rod is nonzero before the collision, but the angular momentum of the system after the collision is nonzero.
Homework Equations
L=Rxmv
L=I*W
The Attempt at a Solution
I thought that the angular momentum of a system was just the individual angular momenta of the components-it is true for linear momentum at least, but before the collision the angular momenta of the puck and rod are zero, after they are each non zero. Am I wrong? If I calculated the angular momenta of each particle in the system after the collision and made a summation, would I find it to be zero? Do we have to treat the particles in the system differently from the system itself? Appreciate any feedback, thanks!