Which term describes the property of kicking back when released?

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Recoil is the backward reaction motion a system experiences when energy or momentum is released. This happens because momentum must be conserved: as something moves forward, the rest of the system moves backward to balance the total momentum. A familiar example is firing a gun—the bullet shoots forward, and the gun kicks back. The other terms describe different ideas—friction is resistance between surfaces, pressure is force per area, and work is energy transferred by moving a force through a distance—none of which capture the backward kick that occurs when the system releases energy.