What would happen if you fired a bullet from the rear of a train?

Question

If you are traveling on a train moving 1000 mph and fire a gun from the rear in the opposite direction and the bullet velocity is 800 mph what would happen?

Answer 1

the speed of the train would cancel out the bullet velocity and the bullet would travel 200mph in the same direction of the train (but far from the train because rear cause the train's velocity)

I understand why this seems strange but you can compare it to a bomb pushed out from the back of a plane

Answer 2

The bullet will still travel with a velocity of 800mph until it hits the ground in opposite direction of the train. But if someone would be watching the bullet from the outside of the train when it was fired, the bullet would appear not moving with respect to the direction the train is going with velocity of 200mph when the bullet was is fired.

Answer 3

First of all that is a pretty darn fast train.

Now for the question. It is rather broad. A lot of things would happen. However, assuming that the mass of the bullet is negligible compared to the mass of the train, the velocity of the train will not change. The velocity of the bullet would be 1000-800=200mph in the direction of movement of the train compared to an observer standing on the ground.

In other words, if you see some asshole standing in the field while you are on that train and you decide to shoot him, the bullet will actually fly away from him, not towards him.

If the masses are not negligible (I assumed they were negligible at first, since there were no mass numbers given), then it is a case of reactive motion and the train will increase its speed slightly. But I doubt the question is about that.

Answer 4

U would use vector addition (i think) to solve this problem so it would be 800+(-1000) because the train is traveling in the opposite direction that the bullet was fired so the velocity of the bullet would be -200mph bc of the velocity of the train (btw thats a fast train to be going 1000mph unless it was a typo and it was meant to be 100, then the velocity of the bullet would be 700mph

Answer 5

I'm curious to see what the answer is myself. Given that the bullet is not moving relative to the train, I would think that the bullet would appear to travel at a speed of 800mph away from the train to the person firing the gun from the rear of said train. To an outside obvserver on a hill as the train passes and the bullet is fired, I would think that the bullet would appear to move forward at a rate of only 200mph. I wanna see what the physics experts say. Good question.

Answer 6

if you are standing at the back of a train and facing the opposite direction of travel then you would pull the trigger the firing pin would strike the primer casuing a chemical reaction (i.e. fire ) inside the shell exploding the bullet from the shell through the bullet and in the direction of travel you are firing the gun, if you were facing the direction of travel on the train when you pulled the trigger you would still have the same effect due to the fact of motion is relative the bullet would still travel 800 miles per hour inside the train it wouldnt come back and hit you

Answer 7

The conductor would be extremely pissed & throw you off his train.

Answer 8

you'd probaly shoot someone in the head, kill them, go to court, do life in prison, and eat fruit cocktail off from the floor