Originally Posted by JohnKSa View Post
......When you hold the slide closed, the slide doesn't reciprocate with respect to the frame, but it does move in recoil with the gun and the shooter's hand. The momentum initially goes into the slide and barrel since they are locked together. They will, as a result, initially have the same velocity until something impedes one or the other.This is a statement that demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of the science behind this topic
And the subject is the slide's velocity and momentum...not the momentum transferred to the frame and the hand via the springs.
I know, which is why it's a waste of time trying to communicate with you (I applaud JohnKSa for even trying!)
And both of you are still trying to ignore an outside force that opposes the slide's acceleration from the git-go.
I'll try one more time, and then I'll give up.
Momentum will be conserved only in the absence of outside force. Once an outside force is met, momentum changes. If one end of an action reaction system meets with an outside force, its momentum is no longer equal to the other side...and once that momentum has been lost, it can't be regained without a new force.
The instant the slide starts to move, it meets with three outside forces. The recoil spring...the mainspring...and the hammer's mass.
If you stab the brake briefly when the car comes off the line...that's the mainspring and hammer.
If you keep your foot on the brake, and gradually increase pressure during the dash to the finish line...that's the recoil spring.
Those outside forces not only affect acceleration, they affect velocity and momentum.
Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the backward momentum of a gun when it is discharged.
And "kick" only happens when the gun is being accelerated. Once acceleration ends, all movement...both gun and bullet...is momentum. And momentum is the after-effect...not actual acceleration.
Once the bullet has left the barrel, the action side of the action-reaction event is over. As far as the gun is concerned, it may as well have never been there. There is no longer an "action" in play...and without action, there is no reaction.
You should be ashamed of the false information you spread to the readers of this thread
Then you should take it up with one J. E. Bell...and actual rocket scientist who explained it all to me when I was 17 and full of questions on the subject. If I could put you in touch with him, I would...but he's been dead lo these many years.
When I asked him to explain why a gun kicks...his first statement was: "Because force accelerates it backward" and he went on to explain that ends the instant that acceleration ends. Then, and only then, did he get into momentum and the conservation of same...and explained that momentum is not kick...but more like "afterkick" or movement after the recoil...for lack of a better term.