Asked by t

When a cannon fires a cannon ball, it recoils backwards. This occurs because of...

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Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
Because of conservation of momentum (equivalently, Newton’s third law). The explosion in the barrel pushes the ball forward; the ball pushes the cannon with an equal and opposite force, giving the cannon backward momentum. Mathematically, m_cannon·V_cannon + m_ball·V_ball = 0, so the cannon’s recoil velocity is opposite and much smaller because the cannon’s mass is much larger.