Question

When a rifle is fired at a distant target, the barrel is not exactly lined up on the target. why? Does the angle of correction depends upon the distance of targets ?

Answer 1

Explanation:

1. Let us suppose a bullet is fired from the gun whose barrel is lined up on the target.
2. Now, the fired bullet has some mass due to which gravitational force will act on it and the bullet will start falling downwards in a projectile motion.
3. Due to this bullet will hit below the target.
4. In order to avoid this problem, the barrel is lined up a little above the target so that the bullet could hit the distant target.
5. Targets located at different distances will have different angles of correctness because the distance is directly proportional to the angle of projection in a projectile motion.
6. The relation between the distance of the target $d$ and the angle of correctness $\theta$ is $d=\frac{u^2\sin 2\theta }{g}$. Here, $u$ is the initial velocity of the bullet and $g$is the acceleration due to gravity.

Hence, the bullet travels in a projectile motion due to which the barrel is not exactly lined up on the target and the angle of correction depends upon the distance of the targets.