There is something I really do not understand about how we should define Force. When mass is constant then we can say that force is the rate of change of momentum and also it is mass times acceleration. But when mass is variable, we can easily solve questions through looking at the system as impulse-collision system. But my question is:in variable mass systems, are forces really the rate of change of momentum which is just the product rule of momentum. Or it remains mass times acceleration and we can investigate it through impulse and collision equations. What I want is the true answer found in the classic literature. What I am thinking of is that the rate of change of momentum can be used in solving these questions but I don’t think it is the definition of the net force as if we choose to define it that way I think there should be more explanations about how the change that happens in the mass would affect the acceleration of the system while this area I think is completely ignored.
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