It is a common example to find the recoil momentum of the gun when the bullet is fired. Last time I felt uncomfortable when I was explaining linear momentum to a student - how can I talk about guns in class.
Its a difficult thing to teach. Try other examples. I'm thinking and following
I also tried to avoid using violent examples in my physics classes, for momentum and other topics. For “explosion” style conservation of momentum problems I used examples like: (1) people on roller skates / ice skates / skateboards pushing off of each other, (2) an astronaut in space tossing a wrench off into space to float back to their space shuttle, (3) carts with a compressed spring between then that pops open, or (3) a plate falls and shatters into exactly two pieces when it hits the ground, knowing how one piece moves off from the point of impact, how does the other. I expand the last example into multiple pieces when we go to 2 dimensions. For projectile motion, I often have a clown shot out of a cannon; you could have recoil for a clown shot straight ahead out of a cannon (on wheels). Hope these examples help some. Best wishes with your class, Shahid. ~ Kevin
Thanks Kevin, you gave me so many good examples. It means it is possible to avoid violent examples.
In my whole career I was never exposed to any Physics teacher or lecturer who used guns or even cannons as examples. So it is really unessential to introduce violence. Rockets are OK, and really cool!
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