Question

A bullet was fired from a gun. Choose the correct option for the situation assuming that no external force is acting on the gun-bullet system.

• A. During firing, the law of conservation of momentum does not hold true.
• B. Since the mass of the bullet is very less than the mass of the gun, the momentum of the bullet is not equal to the momentum of the gun.
• C. The momentum of the gun is twice the momentum of the bullet.
• D. The magnitude of the momentum of a gun is equal to that of a bullet.

Answer 1

The correct option is D The magnitude of the momentum of a gun is equal to that of a bullet.

• The momentum of the bullet and gun system before the firing is zero because both are stationary.
• When a bullet is fired, the gun recoils in the opposite direction of the bullet.
• According to the law of conservation of momentum, the momentum of the bullet-gun system before and after the firing remains the same.
• Therefore, the magnitude of the momentum of the gun is equal to that of the bullet, but in the opposite direction to conserve momentum.
• In real-life scenarios, a person holds the gun and absorbs the backward momentum of the gun.