Center of mass reference point R are and If R is chosen as the center of mass these equations simplify to where "m" is the total mass of all the particles, p is the linear momentum, and L is the angular momentum The Law of Conservation of Momentum predicts that for any system not subjected to external forces the momentum of the system will remain constant, which means the center of mass will move with constant velocity. This applies for all systems with classical internal forces, including magnetic fields, electric fields, chemical reactions, and so on. More formally, this is true for any
Sector mass spectrometer is simple. The physics are described by a single equation called the Lorentz force law. This equation is the fundamental equation of all mass spectrometric techniques and applies in non-linear, non-homogeneous cases too and is an important equation in the field of electrodynamics in general. where E is the electric field strength, B is the magnetic field induction, "q" is the charge of the particle, v is its current velocity (expressed as a vector), and × is the cross product. So the force on an ion in a linear homogeous electric field (an electric sector) is: in the direction of