A man decides to shoot a rifle whilst on a wheelchair. Explain in terms of conservation of momentum what happens to the man as the shot is fired.
Assume that initially the wheelchair is stationary. When the rifle is fired a bullet travels in the forward direction. Conservation of momentum states that the momentum before an action is the same as the momentum after an action. Therefore to conserve a total momentum of 0 the wheelchair must move backwards to conserve momentum. given the mass of the wheelchair with the man and the bullet and the velocity of the bullet, we ould calculate the velocity of the wheelchair.
MH
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