Question

A 50 gram bullet is fired from a 2 kg pistol with a speed of 1500 m/s. What is the speed of recoil of the pistol?

Answer 1

Given the mass of the gun, M = 10 kg,

mass of the bullet, m = 0.05 kg

Speed of the bullet, v = 500 m/s.

Let the velocity of recoil of the gun = V

Using conservation of momentum, we get

Momentum after = momentum before

MV – mv = 0 (as initial momentum was zero)

or, MV = mv

or, 10*V = 500*0.05

or, V = 25/10 = 2.5 m/s