A gun is mounted on a railroad car. The mass of the car, the gun, the shells and the operator is 50 m where m is the mass of one shell. If the velocity of the shell with respect to the gun (in its state before firing) is 200 m/s, what is the recoil speed of the car after the second shot? Neglect friction.

If the recoil velocity of car after first shot is v, applying conservation of momentum,

0 = 49m×v + m×200


v = –200/49


After first shot, velocity of the car = -200/49 m/s


Similarly, after another shot, velocity of the car = -200/48 m/s


Total recoiling velocity of the car = m/s


(negative sign indicates that this recoil velocity is in a direction opposite to that of the shell)


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