Old cannons were built on wheeled carts, both to facilitate moving the canon and to allow the canon to recoil when fired. When a 200 kg canon in car recoils at 1.7 m/s, at what velocity would a 10 kg cannonball leave the Cannon?

34 m/s

Explanation:

The law of conservation of linear momentum dictates that the sum of initial and final momentum should be equal. Momentum is a product of mass and velocity.

Since the canon recoils, its recoil velocity is opposite hence

MV=nu where M and n are mass of cannon and cannoball respectively, v and u are the velocities of cannon and cannon balls respectively.

Substituting 200 kg for M and 1.7 m/s for v then 10 kg for n

200*1.7=10u

U=200*1.7/10=34 m/s