Forms[edit]

When released, this rocket balloonejects a significant amount of its mass as air, causing a large
acceleration.

By the definition of acceleration, a = dv/dt, so the variable-mass system motion equation can be
written as

In bodies that are not treated as particles a must be replaced by acm, the acceleration of
the center of mass of the system, meaning

Often the force due to thrust is defined as

so that

This form shows that a body can have acceleration due to thrust even if no external
forces act on it (Fext = 0). Note finally that if one lets Fnet be the sum
ofFext and Fthrust then the equation regains the usual form of Newton's second law: