A few years ago, a 14-year-old girl here in Phoenix died from a falling bullet. It's a Mexican tradition to shoot guns off in the air on New Year's and July 4th. They never caught the person who did it, because the bullet could have come from anywhere in a 2 mile radius. She was just playing in her backyard, and was stuck in the head and died. It's now illegal in Arizona, but I still hear them go off during the holidays.
Ok this is how it works:
If you shoot straight up in the air, gravity will be the only force bringing it down. It will in no way, shape, or form resemble the speed it left the gun. That being said, a piece of lead falling at high speed will still hurt.
Idiots who shoot guns into the air tend to not fire directly straight up. A bullet fired at a non 90 degree angle will have a far higher rate of speed (depending on the angle), than one fired straight up.
A friend of mine growing up would fire his shotgun straight into the air (he was kinda crazy) and it would rain pellets on us. A rifle is different as a bullet has far more mass than a pellet.
A bullet head leaves the casing when fired. There should be no bullet casings found in your corpses.
If you shoot straight up in the air, gravity will be the only force bringing it down. It will in no way, shape, or form resemble the speed it left the gun. That being said, a piece of lead falling at high speed will still hurt.
Idiots who shoot guns into the air tend to not fire directly straight up. A bullet fired at a non 90 degree angle will have a far higher rate of speed (depending on the angle), than one fired straight up.
A friend of mine growing up would fire his shotgun straight into the air (he was kinda crazy) and it would rain pellets on us. A rifle is different as a bullet has far more mass than a pellet.
A bullet head leaves the casing when fired. There should be no bullet casings found in your corpses.
- Mar 20, 2000
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the army did tests back in the day with small caliber rifles, and found that those bullets, falling at their terminal velocity, were not enough to kill. larger bullets have a larger terminal velocity, of course.
the bullets that kill people on new years aren't fired straight up, and usually come down to earth before all their energy given to them by the charge is used up, so they pretty much aren't traveling at their terminal velocity
the bullets that kill people on new years aren't fired straight up, and usually come down to earth before all their energy given to them by the charge is used up, so they pretty much aren't traveling at their terminal velocity
yukichigai
Diamond Member
- Apr 23, 2003
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I was just going to mention that. It does happen, though it's rare.
Anyway, the bullet won't come down at the exact same speed due to wind resistance, but it'll be moving pretty fast. Someone mentioned hailstones in comparison to bullets. The problem with that statement is that wind resistance is a force, which can be expressed as the mass of something times its acceleration. Since a bullet is sufficiently more dense than a hailstone and thusly has more mass the effect of wind resistance on a bullet will be much lower than on a hailstone of comprable size. The momentum of the bullet (mass times velocity) would be sufficient to kill most likely, provided it is of a high enough calibler.
EDIT: Left out a few words.
Don't listen to these morons. Everybody knows the bullet goes into orbit. In fact, if you shoot to the west, the bullet will travel opposite the earth's rotation, go back in time and end up right back in the box.
yes it might not have the velocity to kill a person but it has enough velocity to puncture a person
even if you were to fire exactly straight up and eliminate wind as a factor, the bullet would still not come straight down since the earth is spinning underneath the bullet.
mugs
Lifer
- Apr 29, 2003
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Originally posted by: Confused
However it won't come down "at the same speed it was fired at" because the only force acting on it will be gravity, not with the force of the explosives behind it
Uh... you're wrong. Unless you ignore the fact that the people who said that also said in the absence of air resistance - in which case, just your reasoning is wrong. The only force acting on the bullet once it leaves the barrel is gravity. It doesn't matter that the force that accelerated it was created by explosives, it will act the same way as any other object that is propelled upward. If you throw a ball straight up, it will come down at the same speed as when it left your hand, minus air resistance.
Yeah I'm pretty sure you're wrong too. The bullet would rotate with the earth. As an anolgy, if you hold a ball out the window of your car and drop it, it will not fall straight down - its initial horizontal velocity will be the same as your car's. Works the same with the bullet - it is rotating at 1000 mph (or less as you move away from the equator) before it leaves the barrel, and will continue to do so after it leaves the barrel. Regardless, it would be very difficult to shoot it dead on straight up.
The speed the bullet is travelling will depend a lot on the trajectory at which it is fired. If it is fired at a low enough trajectory that it does not go very high, but high enough that it still loses all of its horizontal velocity to wind resistance before it falls, then it would likely be moving slower than its terminal velocity when it hits the ground (or some unsuspecting person). But IT WOULD STILL HURT so don't do it.
gsaldivar
Diamond Member
- Apr 30, 2001
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Several years ago, I had a slug miss me by about two feet while standing out on my driveway during 4th of July.
The impact from the falling slug on the driveway made a small hole about the size of a quarter. I was close enough to get little pieces of concrete all over me. I saved the slug, if I can find it I will post a pic.
I'd say without a doubt - they DO fall fast enough to kill.
The impact from the falling slug on the driveway made a small hole about the size of a quarter. I was close enough to get little pieces of concrete all over me. I saved the slug, if I can find it I will post a pic.
I'd say without a doubt - they DO fall fast enough to kill.
The bullet is traveling the same speed as Earth's rotation, horizontal wise. Think about it, when you jump up, you don't move five feet in the opposite direction of Earth's rotation.
So by your reasoning I could get in a hot air balloon, lift off, hover over the ground, and then 12 hours later I would be over China. Why the hell are we wasting money on plane tickets then?
gsaldivar
Diamond Member
- Apr 30, 2001
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