Question

The late news reports the story of a shooting in the city. Investigators think that they have recovered the weapon and they run ballistics tests on the pistol at the firing range. If a 0.050-kg bullet were fired from the handgun with a speed of 400 m/s and it traveled 0.080 m into the target before coming to rest, what force did the bullet exert on the target?

Answer 1

momentum = 0.05*400
time in corpse = 0.08 m / 400
force = change in momentum / time = 0.05 * 400 / (0.08/400)
= (0.05/0.08) * 400^2 = 100,000 Newtons ---- Good grief !