A student fires a paintball gun while standing on a skateboard that can roll without…
PHYSICS · Single correct · CBSE · Physics · Laws of Motion · Laws of Motion
Problem
A student fires a paintball gun while standing on a skateboard that can roll without friction. Which statement best explains why the gun–skateboard system recoils backward when the paintball is launched?
(a) The gun pushes on the paintball harder than the paintball pushes on the gun, so the gun must accelerate backward.
(b) The paintball and the gun acquire equal-magnitude but oppositely directed momenta, so the total momentum of the isolated gun–skateboard–paintball system remains unchanged.
(c) Because the paintball’s mass is much smaller, the gun must recoil with a greater speed to balance the launch, causing it to move backward.
(d) The paintball leaves the barrel with more kinetic energy than the gun can absorb, forcing the gun to move backward to conserve energy in the system.