If you shot a gun up into space at a 90 degree angle, will the bullet come back down you?

Answer 1

Yes -Even worse if it goes up starting at the gun's high muzzle velocity it will go up until it stops and then come down accelerating until it lands with almost the same velocity (enough to kill someone). That's why countries that celebrate New Years by people shooting guns up in the air are always reporting that some celebrater was killed by his own bullet coming down.

Answer 2

you question poses some intrestering ideas.
if you shot a gun in space, if that was possible, while you were in orbit around a planet, the bullet would not come back to hit you.

if you were standing on earth, and were able to pointing the gun straight up and the bullet would come back down close to you but if it hit you it would not kill you as it would be traveling too slowly.

however, if you were to angle the gun a little, the bullet would be traveling much faster when it hit the ground, but it would not hit you and kill you unless you ran very fast to get under it.

all in all it is not safe to shoot a gun up into the air when you do not know where the bullet will impact

Answer 3

If you shot the bullet at exactly 90 degrees, and if the air column above you was totally stable, and if there was absolutely no wind, and if the bullet was aerodynamically stable enough, then yes, it would come back at you. Otherwise, as is sometimes seen elsewhere in the world where guns are shot into the air to celebrate, it would come down elsewhere, and quite possibly hit someone else.

Answer 4

Of course not - for the following reasons. 1. No gun is capable of firing a projectile into space. 2. If such a weapon were available the bullet would be subject to wind forces. 3. If a bullet left the earth's gravitational field, it would just keep going. 4. If it could re-enter the atmosphere, it would either again be subject to wind, or it would (more likely) burn up. 5. Notwithstanding all these problems, the earth would have moved relative to bullet during its time in space.

Answer 5

If you were to neglect such things as mentioned like win air resistance etc then yes it would come back down to hit you. After accelerating due to gravity from a height it will definately be travelling fast enough to kill you although theoretically it should go straight into the barrel of the gun!

The reason for this is although the Earth is rotating, when you fire the gun it is also rotating at the same speed as you and the Earth. Its really about relativity and frame of reference.

This question can be compared to throwing a ball in the air on a moving train then it will come straight back down into your hand as its horizontal velocity is the same as yours and the train's.

Hope this makes sense!

Answer 6

If you could actually shoot the bullet into space, it'd begin orbiting the earth, so "No."

People who believe that the world will rotate away from the bullet, which was launched from a rotating world with the same rotational velocity of that world were not paying attention during the lecture on Newtonian physics.

Anyone who thinks a bullet shot into space will return to the earth readily were likely not reading your question carefully.

Answer 7

There are two cases First the speed of the bullet is greater than Earth's escape velocity In which case no it will not come back to the earth
However if the speed is less than the escape velocity it will follow a projectile path and fall to your west which is the second case

Answer 8

No, because the distance the bullet travels up, the world rotates a small amount and so, it should land to the west of you.

However, with windage I would advise against this because it would most likely get blown so it hits you and not the gun or it will hit the kid down the road playing in the sandpit!

Answer 9

Yes it will come back down.An ordinary gun couldn't fire a bullet at high enough speed for bullet to go into orbit or escape into space.Where it landed would depend on wind conditions.

Answer 10

Never fire a gun unless you can see where the bullet will stop because what goes up must come down and it usually comes down from height at about 120mph !