A curious thing

[johnwillyums]

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

 

[rbeldua]

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

 

[kado897]

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]

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]

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

 

[kado897]

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

 

[Hopalong X]

So we don't need an actuator.

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

A piano should do.

 

[mickey megabyte]

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]

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]

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

 

[Phone Man]

Also wind velocity would affect the bullet. In all the old movies the shooter would throw some dirt in the air to see which way the wind was blowing and adjust his aim.

Jim

 

[Hopalong X]

...what about centrigual force applied to the bullet?

MM is right if no centrifugal force or movement by the shooter by rotation.....or wind.

I was just messing with Mickey anyway.

Dennis is a bad influence on me. :devil:

 

[marsmimar]

This may help to clear things up (or not!) See the sections about Trajectories and Drop of a Bullet.

Gravity Concepts and Applications

But bear in mind that air friction, humidity, temperature, wind, etc will have an effect on a bullet in flight. And also consider that most modern hunting rifles are deliberately sighted in to a specific range ... 100 yards, 200 yards, etc depending on the game one is hunting or the local terrain. As soon as a bullet leaves the muzzle it will begin to rise. Hunters might say their rifle shoots "two inches high at 100 yards and be dead on at 250 yards." The upward trajectory will negate the downward pull of gravity causing a dropped bullet to strike the ground sooner.

Just some good ol' boy Texas shoot 'em up info.

 

[mickey megabyte]

that's the trouble with physics/applied maths, you're always supposing that things are ideal and perfect.

as we all know, real life is a lot more complicated than that...and it make the sums harder to do...

 

[jfar]

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

So can Lee. The Git, haha.

 

[johnwillyums]

So if you stood in the exact centre of a 250 yard carousel, spinning round at 25 RPM, and old Mr Aherne (from the Government Centre) stood at the edge, would you be able too kill him with a hunting rifle?

 

[jfar]

So if you stood in the exact centre of a 250 yard carousel, spinning round at 25 RPM, and old Mr Aherne (from the Government Centre) stood at the edge, would you be able too kill him with a hunting rifle?

I'd leave the ,, Spinning.

 

[mickey megabyte]

all depends on what colour socks you were wearing...

 

[johnwillyums]

If you were stood in the exact centre you wouldn't be moving. Old Mr Aherne on the other hand would be travelling quite fast, he'd have to be tied to a pole.

 

[marsmimar]

So if you stood in the exact centre of a 250 yard carousel, spinning round at 25 RPM, and old Mr Aherne (from the Government Centre) stood at the edge, would you be able too kill him with a hunting rifle?

To hit a moving target one would have to compensate by employing a technique known as "leading the target". This is basically aiming for an imaginary point in front of the target so the trajectory of the bullet intersects the path of the moving target.

If someone was (hypothetically) faced with such a scenario I think they'd much prefer something developed by your country. It's called the STEN. :roflmao: