Question

Captain Kiddo is being chased by the Viper squad. She draws her Firestar M-45 handgun and fires a bullet which embeds itself fully into one of the members of the squad.

Is this collision elastic or inelastic?

Does Captain Kiddo's speed increase, decrease or remain the same as a result of her firing the bullet? why?

Answer 1

this collision is a perfectly inelastic collision because the bullet hits and stops inside the body of the member.

since she fires the bullet in the opposite direction of which she is running, hence due to recoil action of the bullet, her velocity will increase in order to conserve momentum.

Answer 2

since bullet is embedded fully, collision will be perfectly inelastic

if she fires opposite to her initial velocity direction, her speed increases

if she fires in the direction of her initial velocity , her speed decreases

this can be explained on basis of law of conservation of linear momentum