In a closed system, when a cannon fires a cannonball, the conservation of momentum must hold, meaning that the total momentum before and after firing remains constant. The kinetic energy of the cannonball can be affected by the mass of both the cannon and the cannonball.
To increase the kinetic energy of the cannonball when it is fired, one effective way is to decrease the mass of the cannon while keeping the cannonball mass the same or slightly increasing it. This way, when the cannonball is fired, more of the energy goes into the cannonball's kinetic energy because the cannon would have less recoil due to its reduced mass.
The correct answer is: decrease the mass of the cannon or decrease the mass of the cannonball.
Both actions can allow for greater kinetic energy to be transferred to the cannonball.
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