Final answer:
The recoil action of a shooting gun is explained by Newton's third law of motion, which states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The recoil velocity and average force on the internal mechanism of a military rifle can be calculated using conservation of momentum and the work-energy principle, respectively. These principles also explain why the force on the gun is significant when a bullet is rapidly accelerated.
Step-by-step explanation:
The property of matter that best explains the recoil action of a shooting gun is Newton's third law of motion. This law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When a gun fires a bullet, the bullet moves forward, and the gun is pushed back with an equal force. This is what we refer to as the recoil or kick of the gun.
In the context of a military rifle, an internal part such as a plunger is used to reduce recoil forces. The recoil velocity of this plunger can be calculated using the law of conservation of momentum which states that the momentum before firing (which is zero since the gun and bullet are at rest) is equal to the momentum after firing (plunger and bullet are in motion). If a 1.00-kg plunger recoils when a 0.0200-kg bullet is fired at 600 m/s, we can use the equation mbulletvbullet = mplungervplunger to find the recoil velocity of the plunger.
To calculate the average force exerted on this plunger when it is stopped over a distance of 20.0 cm, we can use the work-energy principle, which relates the work done on the plunger (equal to the change in kinetic energy) to the distance over which the force is applied. Using the formula Faverage = (ΔKE) / d, we can find the average force exerted on the plunger.
When comparing the forces involved, the force exerted on the gun when the bullet is accelerated to its velocity in a short amount of time, say 10.0 ms, can be very large due to the rapid change in momentum, which relates to the impulse-momentum theorem. The force can be found using F = Δp / Δt, where Δp is the change in momentum and Δt is the time interval.