Following newton's third law, when a cannon goes off the cannon ball exerts a force on the cannon and the cannon exerts the same force back on the cannon ball. why does the cannon ball travel severl hunder feet while the cannon itself only moves a few inches?

a) because the mass of the cannon ball is much less than the cannon

b) because the cannon is so much larger in size than the cannon ball

c) because the cannon ball is more aerodynamic than the cannon

d) because the forces were not really equal

A) Because the mass of the cannon ball is much less than the cannon

Explanation:

Newton's Third Law describes the result of the interaction between two forces. It can be stated as follows: "For every action (force) on an object, in response to interaction with another object, there will be a reaction (force) of the same value and direction, but with the opposite direction."

An example of this can be seen in the question above, where the cannonball "pushes" the cannon, with the same force as the cannon "pushes" the ball. However, the distance traveled by these two objects will depend greatly on their mass. The ball has a much smaller mass, so the force exerted by the cannon on the ball made it travel a great distance. On the other hand, the cannon has a much larger mass, so the force exerted by the ball is only efficient for the cannon to travel a few centimeters.