A 100 kg gun fires a ball of 1 kg horizontally from a cliff of height 500 m. It falls on the ground at a distance of 400 m from the bottom of the cliff. Find the recoil velocity of the gun.
Let u ms-1 be the horizontal speed of the ball & its vertical component will be zero. If we consider the motion of the ball vertically downward then,
u = 0, s = h = 500m, and g = 10sm-2,
We know that,
= 10 s
Its horizontal range will be equal to
Thus, v = 40 m/s
Assume the mass and velocities of the ball and gun are given by,
is the mass of the ball
is the mass of the gun
is the initial velocity of the ball
is the final velocity of the gun
& is the final velocity of the ball
Now, according to the figure, we get
Therefore, the recoil velocity of the gun will be , which is opposite to the speed of the ball.