Question

In Paul Hewitt's book, he poses this question: "If the forces that act on a bullet and the recoiling gun from which it is fired are equal in magnitude, why do the bullet and gun have very different accelerations?" Think about Newton's Second Law (F = ma) and answer his question.

Answer 1

They have different accelerations because of their masses. According to Newton's Second Law, an objects acceleration is inversely proportional to its mass. Therefore the object with the larger mass, in this case the gun, will have a smaller acceleration. In the same way, the less massive object, being the bullet, will have a higher acceleration.

Hope this helps :)