If I were to drop most objects to a level floor, they would land with a thud or bounce a few times without gaining any lateral velocity.
But a fragile object will not only break into two or more pieces, but the pieces will usually move laterally across the floor.
I suppose the center of mass of the system probably remains at the location where the object broke, but I don't see any reason for the pieces to behave any differently than a typical object that bounces or thuds. Or to put it another way, I can't determine a force that would provide the acceleration by which the pieces gained their lateral velocity.
Why does this happen?
