Physics of Gun Internals


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Weapons such as guns have lots of internal parts and pieces. One of which is the recoil spring as seen on the top right hand picture. This allows the user to feel less recoil when getting pushed back (Newton's 3rd Law) by the bullet exerting a force in one direction and a recoil force in the opposite. The recoil spring essentially takes some of that force and dissipates it instead of the user taking the full load due also to conservation of energy/momentum. In addition the spring also allows the slide of the gun to go back into original position to fire again if needed.
Internals
The spring distance (△x) can be decreased by having a higher "spring weight" in other words a larger k, spring constant, can be substituted in the spring potential equation instead of a higher spring distance USpring=(1/2)(k)(△x). This allows for the gun to be shot quicker because the gun won't recoil as high since a lot of the energy will be absorbed in the spring and not the user, thus it will bring the slide back faster. In addition, once the barrel goes up from the shot, the force of gravity along with the force of the user pushes it down again. Lastly, the spring force can be calculated by using the equation F=(k)(△x). Image result for how does a gun work