Answer to Question #18528 in Electric Circuits for Renee

Question

when a rifle is fired, the rifle "kicks" backwards, but why doesn't the rifle recoil with the same acceleration as the bullet?

Answer 1

The matter is that the rifle has much greater mass then the bullet. Forces acting on the bullet and on the rifle have the same magnitude, so according to the second Newton's law acceleration of the rifle is less than the acceleration of the bullet.