Physics questions, help please?

Contrary to some answers, acceleration is an irrelevant quantity in this question.

The important thing in this problem is that the force is equal and opposite (equal being more important than opposite).

The gun pushed on the bullet (via the expanding gasses), and the bullet pushed on the gun (also via expanding gasses). Thus, the force is the same.

Impulse is just a force times a time (or, if you prefer, a force integrated across a time), so if the force is the same at every time, as Newton suggests it should be, then the impulse should also be the same.

If one is willing to consider more complex interactions, the answer changes. This discussion is beyond the interest of most high school and even many early college physics tests, but is presented in case your class is an exception. When the bullet exits the gun, it essentially ceases to have a force on it from the effects of the gun (it still has gravity and air resistance, but those forces are not pertinent to this discussion). By contrast, the gun continues to have a force on it as it expels the remaining gasses from the powder. So, the gun would experience the greater force and impulse.

Another way of thinking about it is by applying the fact that impulse is the change in momentum. Since momentum is always conserved, you can see that the momentum going in the direction of the bullet is the bullet's momentum and the momentum of the gasses, which have to equal the gun's momentum.

If you want to be EVEN MORE of a stickler for physical accuracy, you can consider the reaction from the police officer. As the bullet is fired it has only a force accelerating it, while the gun has a force from the bullet trying to make it kick, and a force from the hand of the officer trying to make it not kick, thus making the force and impulse on the bullet larger than the one on the gun.

Thus, no matter what the answer was supposed to be there is an explanation for why it is the answer, provided that the item with the greater force also has the greater impulse.

The force on the gun equals the force on the bullet.

F= ma so the bullet accelerates much faster than the gun as it is far lighter.

Impulse is the integral of force with respect to time. If the force experienced by each object is the same and the force is considered instantaneous then the impulses will be equal.

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a) both, every action has an equal an opposite reaction

b) depends if the bullet hit the guy... LOL