A curious thing

johnwillyums · 30 May 2011

This seems hard to believe. A high powered rifle can fire a bullet a very long way

rbeldua · 30 May 2011

could be true...i have seen it in discovery channel :).

kado897 · 30 May 2011

One for the Mythbusters. In theory yes but I suspect there would be aerodynamic effects with real world bullets that would negate that.

mickey megabyte · 30 May 2011

if the bullet was fired at an angle, then it would be different.

if i remember my applied maths correctly, in theory the horizontally fired bullet (projectile) has been given no acceleration (by the gun) in the vertical axis, so the only force acting in the up/down plane is gravity, hence it behaves as if it was just dropped by the hand.

although in real life, the rifling of the gun would impart some spin on the bullet, so this may have a slight effect.

*edit* kado got there first!

johnwillyums · 30 May 2011

That was from the BBC home page. So, well, it must be true, musn't it?

kado897 · 30 May 2011

Quite so. It is part of the BBC charter to "educate" after all.

Hopalong X · 30 May 2011

So we don't need an actuator.

Just dropping a projectile on the bad guys head is sufficient.

A piano should do.

mickey megabyte · 30 May 2011

something that is perhaps easier to understand: same principle, but turned around a bit...

if the bullet was fired straight up, at a perfect 90 degrees, then in theory it wouldn't travel any horizontal distance, and should come back down on the gun.

this is presupposing that the bullet, the barrel, and the gunners are perfect. oh, and no birds getting in the way. :)

Hopalong X · 30 May 2011

mickey megabyte said:

something that is perhaps easier to understand: same principle, but turned around a bit...

if the bullet was fired straight up, at a perfect 90 degrees, then in theory it wouldn't travel any horizontal distance, and should come back down on the gun.

this is presupposing that the bullet, the barrel, and the gunners are perfect. oh, and no birds getting in the way. :)

...and if the Earth stopped turning.

severedsolo · 30 May 2011

Hopalong X said:

mickey megabyte said:

something that is perhaps easier to understand: same principle, but turned around a bit...

if the bullet was fired straight up, at a perfect 90 degrees, then in theory it wouldn't travel any horizontal distance, and should come back down on the gun.

this is presupposing that the bullet, the barrel, and the gunners are perfect. oh, and no birds getting in the way. :)

...and if the Earth stopped turning.

If you want to be technical about it, the bullet itself would come down exactly the same path, it would be you who had moved