Question

A 2.34-kg gun has a recoil velocity of 5.2 m/sec. At what velocity does it fire its 95-gram bullets?

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

We need to use the conservation of energy to help us solve this one.

The energy imparted onto the bullet projectile is equal to the energy imparted into the recoiling gun. We can ignore potential energy and only consider the kinetic energy of the two masses (bullet and gun).

Remember that kinetic energy is expressed as
`K_E = (1)/(2)mv^2`

Conservation of energy means that both the gun and the bullet have the same amount of energy.

`(1)/(2)m_gv_g^2 = (1)/(2)m_b v_b^2`

We'll want to put the mass terms into the same units. So the gun has a mass of 2340 grams.