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ScottDLS wrote:

Charles L. Cotton wrote:

Charles L. Cotton wrote:

LoneStarTx wrote:

The Wall wrote:They had this on Myth Busters. Basically they showed that if you shoot straight up into the air it won't kill you. If you shoot it at an angle other than straight up it could have enough velocity to injure or kill depending on the angle. Not something anyone should be doing regardless.

Sorry but that is just a tv show. The physics say otherwise. The bullet will free fall to terminal velocity with more than enough energy to penetrate the skull. Remember the advice that a penny dropped from a tall building can kill? Any bullet is much heavier and will fall from greater height.

You may be right, but do you have a formula to calculate the energy at various bullet weights? I recall the Myth Busters episode and if I recall correctly, the rounds barely cracked the dirt that appeared to be something in a dry river bed.

Chas.

Well, I found this but it's Greek to me!

Chas.

This is the formula for Terminal Velocity in a vacuum. Hence it only varies with the height and gravity. In a vacuum the bullet would return with exactly the same velocity as when fired (if fired perfectly vertically at < escape velocity). This ignores friction of the atmosphere, which practically limits falling objects to about 120fps if they don't have any downward velocity to begin with.

The bullet or the penny will be highly unlikely to penetrate the skull with their vertical velocity.

While I don't work as a Physicist...I DO have a degree in Physics and ballistics was within my course of study...

Charles L. Cotton wrote:

LoneStarTx wrote:

The Wall wrote:They had this on Myth Busters. Basically they showed that if you shoot straight up into the air it won't kill you. If you shoot it at an angle other than straight up it could have enough velocity to injure or kill depending on the angle. Not something anyone should be doing regardless.

Sorry but that is just a tv show. The physics say otherwise. The bullet will free fall to terminal velocity with more than enough energy to penetrate the skull. Remember the advice that a penny dropped from a tall building can kill? Any bullet is much heavier and will fall from greater height.

You may be right, but do you have a formula to calculate the energy at various bullet weights? I recall the Myth Busters episode and if I recall correctly, the rounds barely cracked the dirt that appeared to be something in a dry river bed.

Chas.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:

LoneStarTx wrote:

The Wall wrote:They had this on Myth Busters. Basically they showed that if you shoot straight up into the air it won't kill you. If you shoot it at an angle other than straight up it could have enough velocity to injure or kill depending on the angle. Not something anyone should be doing regardless.

Sorry but that is just a tv show. The physics say otherwise. The bullet will free fall to terminal velocity with more than enough energy to penetrate the skull. Remember the advice that a penny dropped from a tall building can kill? Any bullet is much heavier and will fall from greater height.

You may be right, but do you have a formula to calculate the energy at various bullet weights? I recall the Myth Busters episode and if I recall correctly, the rounds barely cracked the dirt that appeared to be something in a dry river bed.

Chas.

LoneStarTx wrote:

The Wall wrote:They had this on Myth Busters. Basically they showed that if you shoot straight up into the air it won't kill you. If you shoot it at an angle other than straight up it could have enough velocity to injure or kill depending on the angle. Not something anyone should be doing regardless.

Sorry but that is just a tv show. The physics say otherwise. The bullet will free fall to terminal velocity with more than enough energy to penetrate the skull. Remember the advice that a penny dropped from a tall building can kill? Any bullet is much heavier and will fall from greater height.

ScottDLS wrote:

Vol Texan wrote:I hope they find the idiot who did this:

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/ho ... =fb-pemium

Just a few moments into the New Year, Javier Sruarez Rivera stood in his driveway with his wife to watch fireworks burst in the night sky, listening to their pops mingled with the sounds of unseen neighbors shooting guns into the air.

As he looked up, a bullet came down.

Rivera collapsed, falling backward onto the concrete, blood pouring from a wound to his head. Inside his house, 18 family members, who had been sharing midnight hugs and handshakes, heard his wife's screams for someone to call 911.

. . . I believe in most cases terminal velocity for a falling object is about 120 fps or 154 mph. A roughly straight up until it falls back bullet would have lost it's spin and lateral velocity (if any). I guess if it hit you in the eye...or soft tissue of the neck... I highly suspect "defilade" fire. In other words more lateral from a higher vertical location...or maybe even someone with evil intent shooting while covered by celebratory fireworks. . . .