Opening ceremonies massed cannon fire at the Hampton Blackbeard Festival 2017.

People have asked why some of these guns (cannons are called "guns") recoil, and want to know what they are they firing that creates the recoil.

Recoil is explained by Newton's Laws of Motion. The explosion of their blackpowder charge creates enough energy to overcome static inertia in the smaller guns with good wheels on their carriages. Because the charge explosion is omnidirectional, forces against the gun's breechface compared to the lesser force toward the muzzle (and theoretically balanced force around the tube) causes them to recoil. Blackpowder actually explodes rather than being progressive burning like nitroglycerine/nitrocellulose/nitroguanidine based modern propellant powders.

These were unwadded blackpowder blank charges. We are not allowed to fire roundshot. Any property, structures or people downrange would result in complaints.

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