... causes the center of mass of the system to accelerate.
{"title":"The net external force on a system...","description":"Incorrect","type":"incorrect","color":"#99CCFF","code":"[{\"shape\":\"poly\",\"coords\":\"82,133\"},{\"shape\":\"rect\",\"coords\":\"29,19,124,40\"}]"} {"title":"... causes the center of mass of the system to accelerate.","description":"Correct!","type":"correct","color":"#ffcc00","code":"[{\"shape\":\"rect\",\"coords\":\"118,11,119,13\"},{\"shape\":\"rect\",\"coords\":\"187,1,202,19\"},{\"shape\":\"rect\",\"coords\":\"267,11,287,29\"}]"}Equation 7-34 looks almost exactly like Newton’s second law for a single object of mass \(m\):
\(\sum{\vec{F}_\mathrm{ext}} = m\vec{a}\)
So what Equation 7-34 tells us is that \(\textit{the center of mass of a system of objects moves exactly as if the entire mass \(M_\mathrm{tot}\) of the system were concentrated at the center of mass, and all of the external forces on the system acted on that concentrated mass}\).