Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2007 / ia / Paper 4 / 12C / ii

About a fixed inertial origin, the total angular momentum is $\mathbf{L}={\sum }_i{m}_i{\mathbf{r}}_i\times {\dot{\mathbf{r}}}_i$. Differentiation givesbecause ${\dot{\mathbf{r}}}_i\times {\dot{\mathbf{r}}}_i=0$. Separate the external and internal contributions. The combined torque of an internal pair isThe first equality uses Newton's third law, and the second uses the given central-force condition. All internal torques therefore cancel, leavingAn equal-and-opposite pair which is not central need not have zero combined torque; this explains why both internal-force hypotheses matter.