Built on Facts  Shoot the Moon  There’s a comic strip called Non
Sequitur. Not one of my favorites, but occasionally there’s a
pretty good one. Here’s an example. We have a kid speculating
about firing a gun on the moon. He asks:  If you were on the
moon, which is a vacuum, and tried to shoot a gun, would it
fire? After all combustion needs an atmosphere with oxygen… or
does the casing of the bullet create its own atmosphere? If so,
the bullet would travel farther in the reduced gravity, but
would it travel faster than it does on the earth?   Let’s take
‘em one at a time.  First, the bullet would fire. Explosives
including gunpowder don’t need atmospheric oxygen to fire. They
react far too quickly, and atmospheric oxygen can’t be pulled in
from the surrounding air fast enough. Instead, explosives
contain their own oxidizers and will work in a vacuum just fine.
Willthe bullet travel farther? Sure it will. A bullet stops
moving once it hits the ground, and if it’s falling more slowly
in the low gravity it will