You are a world-famous physicist-lawyer defending a client who has been charged

Question

You are a world-famous physicist-lawyer defending a client who has been charged with murder. It is alleged that your client, Mr. Smith, shot the victim, Mr. Wesson. The detective who investigated the scene of the crime found a second bullet, from a shot that missed Mr. Wesson, that had embedded itself into a chair. You arise to cross-examine the detective. You: In what type of chair did you find the bullet? Det: A wooden chair. You: How massive was this chair? Det: It had a mass of 30.0kg . You: How did the chair respond to being struck with a bullet? Det: It slid across the floor. You: How far? Det: Three centimeters. The slide marks on the dusty floor are quite distinct. You: What kind of floor was it? Det: A wood floor, very nice oak planks. You: What was the mass of the bullet you retrieved from the chair? Det: Its mass was 10 g. You: And how far had it penetrated into the chair? Det: A distance of 9.00cm . You: Have you tested the gun you found in Mr. Smith's possession? Det: I have. You: What is the muzzle velocity of bullets fired from that gun? Det: The muzzle velocity is 450m/s . You: And the barrel length? Det: The gun has a barrel length of 62 cm.

With only a slight hesitation, you turn confidently to the jury and proclaim, "My client's gun did not fire these shots!" Calculate the distance this chair could slid under given conditions to convince the jury and the judge. The coefficient of kinetic friction for "wood-wood" is 0.2

Explanation / Answer

Impulse given by the bullet to chair = mass of bullet*(Initial velocity of bullet - Final velocity of bullet)

Impulse given by the bullet to chair = 0.01*(450-0) = 4.5 kg m/s

The decleration provided by the floor = - (coefficent of friction * acceleration due to gravity)

decleration provided by the floor = - (0.2*9.8) = -1.96 m/s^2

If the chair travelled for a time t on the floor,

then impulse by the floor on (chair+ bullet) system = (M+m)* decleration provided by the floor * time

impulse by the floor on (chair+ bullet) system = (30+0.01)*-1.96*t = -58.8196 t Kgm/s

By momentum balance,

Impulse given by the bullet to chair +impulse by the floor on (chair+ bullet) system =0

4.5 - 58.8196 t=0

t = 13.071 s

Final velocity of (chair+bullet) system =0

so the distance travelled by the (chair+bullet) system =

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse Y
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.