Question

Asap please,

hi, just a quick physics question!

In Paul Hewitt's book, he poses this question: "If the forces that act on a bullet and the recoiling gun from which it is fired are equal in magnitude, why do the bullet and gun have very different accelerations?" Think about Newton's Second Law (F = ma) and answer his question.

Thanks

Answer 1

The gun and the bullet have much different masses. The forces of each are equal but since f=mass * acceleration, the bullet will have a greater acceleration because its mass is much smaller.