At 05:11 PM 6/10/01 -0700, petro wrote:
>
> Secondly, if you think *ANY* firearm you can fire standing up
>will "Knock them on their behind", take a high school physics class.
>
Well said, but:
In _The Irish War_ there's a description of IRA improvised recoilless
'rifles' which, like their .mil-industrial analogues, toss an equal
mass out the back end. The reacting countermass is a bunch of flakes
which dissipate the KE against the atmosphere.
[Ie, consider a barrel open at both ends. Put missile, charge, countermass
flakes in that order. Point missile at thing you don't like, and keep
friendlies a few meters away from the countermass ejection end of the barrel.]
........
That said, an (e.g.) hip or knee shot on a biped will cause it to fall
approximately
back if the posture is right. That also is just the physics of actively
balanced inverted pendula, biomechanics.
Cheers,
dh
