Question

The law of conservation of momentum holds for ___

Answer 1

Law of Conservation of Linear Momentum:

1. The linear momentum of a body is the product of the mass and velocity of the body. Mathematically it is expressed as $p=mv$, where $p$ is the linear momentum, $m$ is the mass of the body and $v$ is the velocity of the body.
2. According to the law of conservation of momentum, “Two bodies acting upon each other in an isolated system will have a constant total momentum until an external force is applied to them.”
3. It states that motion never changes in an isolated collection of objects and the total momentum of a system remains constant.
4. So, this law is applied to a system and not to individual bodies.

Hence, the law of conservation of momentum holds for a system of particles and not for individual bodies.