Question

Disregarding air friction, what force(s) act on a bullet shot from a rifle as it moves through the air?

Answer 1

The gravity.
In fact, the gravity will "pull" the bullet towards the ground, and the magnitude of the force is equal to the weight of the bullet:

`F=mg`
where
m is the mass of the bullet

`g=9.81 m/s^2` is the acceleration of gravity

Due to the presence of this force, the bullet will have a parabolic motion, which consists of two independent motions on the horizontal axis and on the vertical axis:
- on the horizontal axis, the bullet moves by uniform motion with constant speed
- on the vertical axis, the bullet moves by uniformly accelerated motion, with constant acceleration g towards the ground.