Automatic's

[David Honig]

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