Question

A bullet fired against a window glass pane makes a hole in it without any cracks while a stone striking the same glass pane smashes it; explain with reason.

Answer 1

When the bullet strikes the glass, the part of the glass coming in contact with the bullet immediately shares the large velocity of the bullet and makes a hole in it while the rest of the glass pane, due to the inertia of rest, remains at rest and so is not smashed. But when a stone strikes the same glass pan, the surrounding part of the glass gets time to share the comparatively low velocity of stone and so it is smashed.