When a bullet is fired from a gun .What is the total momentum of gun and bullet? Explain why?
Answers
Answer:
When a bullet is fired from a gun ,total momentum of bullet is zero since nothing is moving.
Answer: The total momentum of gun and bullet after bullet fired from gun is equal to zero.
Explanation:
Momentum is a vector quantity.
Every event in nature follows law of conservation of momentum.
Law of conservation of momentum states that momentum can neither be created nor be destroyed.
In the above example-
initially the bullet and gun as a system are in rest.
They have zero velocity.
Therefore, the momentum of the system is zero.
Momentum = mass x velocity
When the bullet is fired from the gun.
The bullet travels with a velocity in the forward direction.
While the gun recoils in a backward direction with recoil velocity.
The bullet has positive momentum and the gun has negative momentum.
Both the momentum are equal in magnitude with opposite in sign.
Momentum follows vector addition.
Momentum of bullet + momentum of gun = 0
since both are equal in magnitude but opposite in sign.
Hence the total momentum of the system when calculated remans equal zero.
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