how would a newton's cradle act if you shot the ball on the end?

Question

if , instead of letting the ball on the end swing and hit the others, someone shot the end ball of a stationary newton's cradle[those things ,sometimes as toys, with hanging metal balls in a row]how [assume without destroying it]would it behave?

Answer 1

Assuming that you didn't shoot it so hard that it caused things to be knocked out of allignment, it should take off and start swinging the same as it normally would.

Doug.