What would be the subsequent motion of a cannon if it has been facing the wrong way and the ball fired had been absorbed by some cargo lying about a deck?
Normally, the ball fired with the cannon facing the right way, would make the cannon move in the opposite direction of the ball.
Please advise, thanks.
2007-07-10 11:09:44 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
what the ball hits doesn't matter.
it's the force of the ball's initial acceleration which will cause the cannon to accelerate in the opposite direction (in proportion to their masses, of course.
search on Newton's first law and you'll find gob's of information like this:
2007-07-10 11:20:33 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If a cannon is facing north and it fires, the ball goes north and the cannon goes south.
If the cannon is facing south (the 'wrong' way), the ball will go south, and the cannon will go north.
This is a result of Newton's third law, which states that forces come in pairs; if object A exerts a force on object B, then object B exerts an identical force on object A, but in the opposite direction.
2007-07-10 18:14:49 · answer #2 · answered by lithiumdeuteride 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Both answerers are correct. The cannon still goes opposite the initial trajectory of the cannonball. Where the ball goes, what happens to it do not matter to the question.
Nice job though, heimdahl_jr, of slipping the word "gobs" in there while discussing something naval!
2007-07-10 18:48:27 · answer #3 · answered by roynburton 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋